Relative Disqualification

The following are the principal cases of persons who, though having general capacity to marry, could not intermarry.

(1) Persons related within prohibited degrees. Relationship in Roman law, it will be remembered, might be - either agnatic or cognatic; agnation being the artificial tie through the potestas, and cognation the natural tie through birth.

(a) Ascendants and descendants, in any degree, could not intermarry, whether the relationship was agnatic or cognatic, and even though the artificial tie of agnation was broken by ernancipation.

(b) Collaterals within the third degree could not intermarry, but collaterals beyond the third degree (with some exceptions) could intermarry. For a time, under the old law, the prohibition extended to the fourth degree, thus preventing the marriage of first cousins. In the case of agnates, if the tie be broken by emancipation, the restriction was removed.

(c) Relatives by affinity (affines), which includes persons connected by marriage, concubinage, or contubernium. There were no regular degrees of affinity, but certain enumerated aiEnes were prohibited from intermarrying. Thus a man could not marry his mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, step- mother or step-daughter. Nor under the legislation of Con- stantine (the first Christian emperor) and some of his successors, could a man marry his brother's widow, or deceased wife's sister. The intermarriage of a woman with her deceased husband's brother does not seem to have been prohibited.

(2) Persons in Fiduciary Relation. Tutors and curators or their sons could not marry their wards (pupillae) until they were twenty-six years of age. The object of this prohibition was to remove the temptation to marry the ward in order to cover maladministration, and the prohibition was continued for the period within which the woman could challenge the accounts.

(3) Patron and Freedman. A patron might marry his freedwoman (liberta), but it was considered more becoming (honestius) for him to take her as concubine. A female patron would not marry her freedman (libertus), nor could a freedman marry the wife, daughter or granddaughter of his patron.

(4) Citizens and Aliens. Roman citizens could not marry Latins or Peregrini. (The intermarriage of patricians and plebeians was prohibited for a short time by the Twelve Tables, but the prohibition was removed in B. C. 445 by the Lex Canuleia passed at the instance of the (plebeian) tribune C. Canuleius).

(5) Christians and Jeivs could not intermarry. This pro- hibition was introduced in A. D. 388 under the Christian Empire.

(6) Criminals. A man convicted of adultery with a married woman could not marry her. And a man who had committed rape could not marry his victim, the reason being that the property of the rapist was forfeited to the woman, and by marrying her he could get it back.

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Effects of Marriage with Manus

By the strict marriage the wife passed into the marital power of her husband {in manum viri). The manus or marital power may be regarded as a particular form of the patria potestas. An uxor in manu was a member of her husband's household. Although called a materfamilias, this term did not have a meaning corresponding to the term paterfamilias. The wife was not the head of the family. She stood legally in the position of a daughter {in loco filiafamilias) of her husband. If she had children she was regarded as a sister of her own children. The relation of husband and wife, both as regards the wife's person and her property, was governed by the same rules of law as governed the relation of father and child. The law of husband and wife may, therefore, be considered as merely a particular branch of the law of parent and child. The husband had, in general, the same power over the person of his wife in manu as the father had over his child. Anciently, it may be suppo...
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Slavery by Birth

The children of a female slave became the slaves of her master. The status of the father as free or slave was immaterial. The general rule governing the determination of the status of a child, whether as free or slave, or as citizen or alien, was as follows : Children born in lawful wedlock had the status of the father at the moment of conception, children born out of wedlock had the status of the mother at the moment of birth. Hence if the father of a child of a lawful marriage was free at the moment of conception, the child was free although the father should subsequently lose his freedom. As to children born out of wedlock, the general rule, as above stated, was that it was the status of the mother at the moment of birth that determined the status of the child. If the mother was free at the moment of conception but a slave at the moment of birth, the child was a slave, and conversely. This was the earlier law, but the rule was modified in the interest of liber...
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Mandate (Mandatum)

Mandate (mandatum) was a contract by which one person mandatarius agreed to do something gratuitously at the request of another mandator , who, on his part, agreed to save him harmless from all loss in so doing. The mandator was said to give the mandatory a mandate, or commission to do the act in question. The term mandatum is sometimes translated "agency", but this translation is misleading. The mandatory is not properly described as an agent. Mandate was the only gratuitous consensual contract; the others, sale, hiring, and partnership, all being founded upon a consideration. Like the others, it was a bona fidei negotium , and bound the parties to do all that was required by good faith. It was of the essence of the contract of mandate that the mandatory should act gratuitously. But while this was true in a strict legal sense, it was allowed to agree upon a sum to be paid as a honorium , or salary, which might be recovered only by a special action and not b...
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