id="FNanchor_53"/>^[53] No husband was allowed to have a concubine.^[54] He was bound to support his wife adequately, look out for her interests,^[55] and strictly to avenge any insult or injury offered her^[56]; any abusive treatment of the wife by the husband was punished by an action for damages^[57]. A wife was compelled by law to go into solemn mourning for a space of ten months upon the death of a husband^[58]. During the period of mourning she was to abstain from social banquets, jewels, and crimson and white garments^[59]. If she did not do so, she lost civil status. The emperor Gordian, in the year 238, remitted these laws so far as solemn clothing and other external signs of mourning above enumerated were concerned.^[60] But a husband was not compelled to do any legal mourning for the death of his wife.^[61]

The wife was, as I have said, in the power of her husband. Originally, no doubt, this power was absolute; the husband could even put his wife to death without a public trial. But the world was progressing, and that during the first three centuries after Christ the power of the husband was reduced in practice to absolute nullity I shall make clear in the following pages. I shall, accordingly, first investigate the rights of the wife over her dowry, that is, the right of managing her own property.

Even from earliest times it is clear that the wife had complete control of her dowry. The henpecked husband who is afraid of offending his wealthy wife is a not uncommon figure in the comedies of Plautus and Terence; and Cato the Censor growled in his usual amiable manner at the fact that wives even in his day controlled completely their own property.^[62] The attitude of the Roman law on the subject is clearly expressed. "It is for the good of the state that women have their dowries inviolate."^[63] "The dowry is always and everywhere a chief concern; for it is for the public good that dowries be retained for women, since it is highly necessary that they be dowered in order to bring forth offspring and replenish the state with children."^[64] "It is just that the income of the dowry belong to the husband; for inasmuch as it is he who stands the burdens of the married state, it is fair that he also acquire the interest."^[65] "Nevertheless, the dowry belongs to the woman, even though it is in the goods of the husband."^[66] "A husband is not permitted to alienate his wife's estate against her will."^[67] A wife could use her dowry during marriage to support herself, if necessary, or her kindred, to buy a suitable estate, to help an exiled parent, or to assist a needy husband, brother, or sister. The numerous accounts in various authors of the first three centuries after Christ confirm the statement that the woman's power over her dowry was absolute.^[68] Then as now, a man might put his property in his wife's name to escape his creditors,^[69]—a useless proceeding, if she had not had complete control of her own property.

When the woman died, her dowry, if it had been given by the father (dos profecticia) returned to the latter; but if any one else had given it (dos adventicia), the dowry remained with the husband, unless the donor had expressly stipulated that it was to be returned to himself at the woman's death (dos recepticia),^[70] In the case of a dowry of the first kind, the husband might retain what he had expended for his wife's funeral.^[71] The dowry was confiscated to the state if the woman was convicted of lèse majesté, violence against the state, or murder.^[72] If she suffered punishment involving loss of civil status under any other law which did not assess the penalty of confiscation, the husband acquired the dowry just as if she were dead. Banishment operated as no impediment; if the woman wished to leave her husband under these circumstances, her father could recover the dowry.^[73]

A further confirmation of the power of the wife over her property is the law that prohibited gifts between husband and wife; obviously, a woman could not be said to have the power of making a gift if she had no right of property of her own. The object of the law mentioned was to prevent the husband and wife from receiving any lasting damage to his