Wife
Further information: Women in Ancient Rome and Marriage in ancient RomeThe legal potestas of the pater familias over his wife depended on the form of marriage contracted between them. In the Early Republic, a wife was "handed over" to the legal control of her husband in the form of marriage cum manu (Latin manus means "hand"). If the man divorced his wife, he had to give the dowry back to his wife and her family. By the Late Republic, manus marriage had become rare, and a woman remained legally a part of her birth family.
Women emancipated from the potestas of a paterfamilias were independent by law (sui iuris), but had a male guardian appointed to them. A woman sui iuris had the right to take legal action on her own behalf, but not to administer legal matters for others.
Read more about this topic: Pater Familias
Famous quotes containing the word wife:
“To me heaven would be a big bull ring with me holding two barrera seats and a trout stream outside that no one else was allowed to fish in and two lovely houses in the town; one where I would have my wife and children and be monogamous and love them truly and well and the other where I would have my nine beautiful mistresses on nine different floors.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“Your wife would give you little thanks for that
If she were by to hear you make the offer.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I was perfectly certain that I had nothing to offer of an individual nature and that my only chance of doing my duty as the wife of a public official was to do exactly as the majority of women were doing ...”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)