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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 marriageancient Rome was a strictly [[monogamy|monogamous]] institution: under Roman law, a [[Roman citizen]], whether male or female, could have only one spouse at a time. The practice of monogamy distinguished the [[Marriage in Ancient Greece|Greeks]] and Romans from ancient civilizations in which elite males typically had [[polygyny|multiple wives]]. [[Walter Scheidel]] believes that Greco-Roman monogamy 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>{{CiteScheidel, book |last=Cheidel |first=Walter, |title="A peculiar institution? Greco–Roman monogamy in global context", 2006, |publisher=Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2145, USA (2006), |year=2006In ''History of the Family'' 14 (2009), Elsevier, pp. 280–291 available online at |location=sciencedirect.com |pages=280–291}}[https://web.stanford.edu/~scheidel/Scheidel_HISFAM.pdf]</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://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=148}}</ref><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=187}}</ref><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=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=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>
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Following the [[Crisis of the Roman Republic|collapse of the Republic]], laws about marriage, parenting, and [[adultery]] were part of [[Augustus]]' program to restore the ''[[mos maiorum]]'' (traditional [[social norms]]) while consolidating his power as ''[[princeps]]'' and ''pater familias'' of the Roman state.<ref>[[#Edwards|Edwards]], pp. 34ff., 41–42 ''et passim''; and "Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome," in ''Roman Sexualities'' (Princeton University Press, 1997), pp. 67, 89–90 ''et passim''.</ref> Marriage and remarriage had become less frequent, and the citizen birth rate had fallen, particularly among the wealthier, more leisured classes. Augustan law on marriage and family life encouraged marriage, having children, and punished adultery as a crime.<ref name=Mary>[[#Lefkowitz|Lefkowitz]], p. 102.</ref> The new legislation formalized and enforced what had been considered a traditional, moral duty to family and the State; all men between 25 and 60 years of age, and all women between 20 and 50 were to marry and have children, or pay extra tax in proportion to their wealth. Members of the upper classes thus had most to lose. Citizens who had already produced three children, and freed persons who had produced four, were exempt. Marriages between senators, freed women, enslaved people and citizens were declared legally void. Children born to such liaisons were illegitimate, non-citizen and unable to inherit.<ref>Frank, Richard I., "Augustus' Legislation on Marriage and Children," ''California Studies in Classical Antiquity'', Vol. 8, 1975, pp. 44–45 University of California Press DOI: 10.2307/25010681 {{Subscription required |via=[[JSTOR]]}}</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&nbsp;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://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=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://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=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://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=203}}</ref>
 
===Wedding ceremonies===
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