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Marriage ({{lang|la|conubium}}) was one of the fundamental institutions of Roman society, as it joined not only two individuals but two families. The Romans considered marriage a partnership, whose primary purpose was to have legitimate descendants to whom property, status, and family qualities could be handed down through the generations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans Grubbs |first=Judith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spCFAgAAQBAJ |title=Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: a sourcebook on marriage, divorce and widowhood |publisher=Taylor & Francis |date=June 2002 |isbn=9781134743926 |pages=81}}</ref>
Marriage in ancient Rome was a strictly [[monogamy|monogamous]] institution: under Roman law, a [[Roman citizen]], whether male or female, could have only one spouse in marriage at a time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans Grubbs |first=Judith |url=https://wwwbooks.google.co.incom/books/edition/Women_and_the_Law_in_the_Roman_Empire/spCFAgAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gl=INonepage&q&f=falsespCFAgAAQBAJ |title=Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: a sourcebook on marriage, divorce and widowhood |publisher=Taylor & Francis |yeardate=June, 2002 |isbn=9781134743926 |pages=148}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans Grubbs |first=Judith |url=https://wwwbooks.google.co.incom/books/edition/Women_and_the_Law_in_the_Roman_Empire/spCFAgAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gl=INonepage&q&f=falsespCFAgAAQBAJ |title=Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: a sourcebook on marriage, divorce and widowhood |publisher=Taylor & Francis |yeardate=June, 2002 |isbn=9781134743926 |pages=187}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans Grubbs |first=Judith |url=https://wwwbooks.google.co.incom/books/edition/Women_and_the_Law_in_the_Roman_Empire/spCFAgAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gl=INonepage&q&f=falsespCFAgAAQBAJ |title=Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: a sourcebook on marriage, divorce and widowhood |publisher=Taylor & Francis |yeardate=June, 2002 |isbn=9781134743926 |pages=220}}</ref> The practice of monogamy in marriage distinguished the [[Marriage in Ancient Greece|Greeks]] and Romans from ancient civilizations in which elite males typically had [[Polygyny|multiple wives]] in marriage. [[Walter Scheidel]] believes that Greco-Roman monogamy
in marriage may have arisen from the relative [[egalitarianism]] of the [[Greek democracy|democratic]] and [[Roman Republic|republican]] political systems of the city-states. The aspect of a monogamous institution was later embraced by [[early Christianity]], which in turn perpetuated it as an ideal in later [[Western culture]]. In the early fifth century [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] referred to it as a "Roman custom".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cheidel, |first=Walter |title=A peculiar institution? Greco–Roman monogamy in global context |publisher=Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2145, USA (2006) |year=2006 |location=sciencedirect.com |pages=pp. 280–291}}</ref>
Marriage had [[Roman mythology|mythical precedents]], starting with the [[The Rape of the Sabine Women|abduction of the Sabine Women]], which may reflect the archaic custom of [[bride abduction]]. [[Romulus]] and his band of male immigrants approached the Sabines for ''conubium'', the legal right to intermarriage, from the [[Sabines]]. According to [[Livy]], [[Romulus]] and his men abducted the Sabine maidens, but promised them an honorable marriage, in which they would enjoy the benefits of property, citizenship, and [[children of Ancient Rome|children]].<ref>Treggiari, Susan (1991). ''Roman Marriage''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-814890-9}} esp. p. 8f</ref>
A married woman who bore three children or more could be granted legal independence under the ''[[ius trium liberorum|ius liberorum]]''.<ref>Thomas, "The Division of the Sexes," p. 133.</ref> These laws were poorly received; they were modified in 9 AD by the ''[[Lex Papia Poppaea]]'';{{clarify|date=April 2017}} eventually, they were nearly all repealed or fell into disuse under [[Constantine I|Constantine]] and later emperors, including [[Justinian]].<ref name=Mary/>
In the case of Roman citizen men, it is not clear whether the condition that a man is not able to have a concubine at the time that he has a wife pre-dates or post-dates the Constantinian law;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans Grubbs |first=Judith |url=https://wwwbooks.google.co.incom/books/edition/Women_and_the_Law_in_the_Roman_Empire/spCFAgAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gl=INonepage&q&f=falsespCFAgAAQBAJ |title=Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: a sourcebook on marriage, divorce and widowhood |publisher=Taylor & Francis |yeardate=June, 2002 |isbn=9781134743926 |pages=303}}</ref> ie., whether concubinage existed concurrently with marriage for men in Ancient Rome has been debated in modern scholarship and the evidence is inconclusive: it was not until the sixth century CE, after centuries of Christian influence, that the [[Justinian I|emperor Justinian]] claimed that “ancient law” prohibited husbands from keeping wives and concubines at the same tim [[Justinian I|up]]<nowiki/>e.<ref>Scheidel, Walter, "A peculiar institution? Greco–Roman monogamy in global context", 2006, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2145, USA (2006), In ''History of the Family'' 14 (2009), Elsevier, pp. 283</ref> According to Walter Schedule, conditions in the Ancient Rome are best defined as prescriptively monogamous marriage that co-existed with male resource polygyny; powerful men had a principal wife and several secondary sexual partners.<ref>Scheidel, Walter, "A peculiar institution? Greco–Roman monogamy in global context", 2006, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2145, USA (2006), In ''History of the Family'' 14 (2009), Elsevier, pp. 280</ref> A married man's sexual activities with slaves, prostitutes, or other women of low status were not, in legal terms, adultery, and he could not be prosecuted under Augustus Laws.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans Grubbs |first=Judith |url=https://wwwbooks.google.co.incom/books/edition/Women_and_the_Law_in_the_Roman_Empire/spCFAgAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gl=INonepage&q&f=falsespCFAgAAQBAJ |title=Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: a sourcebook on marriage, divorce and widowhood |publisher=Taylor & Francis |yeardate=June, 2002 |isbn=9781134743926 |pages=210}}</ref> Under the adultery law, married man would only be committing adultery if his lover were someone else's wife.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans Grubbs |first=Judith |url=https://wwwbooks.google.co.incom/books/edition/Women_and_the_Law_in_the_Roman_Empire/spCFAgAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gl=INonepage&q&f=falsespCFAgAAQBAJ |title=Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: a sourcebook on marriage, divorce and widowhood |publisher=Taylor & Francis |yeardate=June, 2002 |isbn=9781134743926 |pages=203}}</ref>
===Wedding ceremonies===
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