The Private Life of the Romans. Harold Whetstone Johnston

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СКАЧАТЬ FIGURE 12. DRESSING THE BRIDE

FIGURE 13. THE FLAMMEUM

      77 On the morning of the wedding day the bride was dressed for the ceremony by her mother, and Roman poets show unusual tenderness as they describe her solicitude. There is a wall painting of such a scene, found at Pompeii and reproduced in Fig. 12. The chief article of dress was the tunica rēgilla already mentioned, which was fastened around the waist with a band of wool tied in the knot of Hercules (nodus Herculāneus), probably because Hercules was the guardian of wedded life. This knot the husband only was privileged to untie. Over the tunic was worn the bridal veil, the flame-colored veil (flammeum), shown in Fig. 13. So important was the veil of the bride that nūbere, "to veil one's self," is the regular word for "marry" when used of a woman.

      78 Especial attention was given to the arrangement of the hair, but unfortunately we have no picture preserved to us to make its arrangement clear. We only know that it was divided into six locks by the point of a spear, probably a reminiscence of the ancient marriage by capture, and that these locks perhaps braided were kept in position by ribbons (vittae). The bride had also a wreath of flowers and sacred plants gathered by herself. The groom wore of course the toga and had a similar wreath of flowers on his head. He was accompanied to the home of the bride at the proper time by relatives, friends, and clients, who were bound to do him every honor on his wedding day.

      79 The Ceremony.—The house of the bride's father, where the ceremony was performed, was decked with flowers, boughs of trees, bands of wool, and tapestries. The guests arrived before the hour of sunrise, and even then the omens had been already taken. In the ancient confarreate ceremony these were taken by the public augur, but in later times, no matter what the ceremony, the haruspices merely consulted the entrails of a sheep which had been killed in sacrifice. When the marriage ceremonies are described it must be remembered that only the consent was necessary (§73) with the act expressing the consent, and that all other forms and ceremonies were unessential and variable. Something depended upon the particular form used, but more upon the wealth and social position of the families interested. It is probable that most weddings were a good deal simpler than those described by our chief authorities.

      80 After the omens had been pronounced favorable the bride and groom appeared in the atrium, the chief room, and the wedding began. This consisted of two parts:

      1. The ceremony proper, varying according to the form used (cōnfarreātiō, coēmptiō, or ūsus), the essential part being the consent before witnesses.

      2. The festivities, including the feast at the bride's home, the taking of the bride with a show of force from her mother's arms, the escort to her new home (the essential part), and her reception there.

FIGURE 14. A MARRIAGE SCENE

      81 The confarreate ceremony began with the dextrārum iūnctiō. The bride and groom were brought together by the prōnuba, a matron married to her first husband, and joined hands in the presence of ten witnesses representing the ten gentēs of the cūria. These are shown on an ancient sarcophagus found at Naples (Fig. 14). Then followed the words of consent spoken by the bride: Quandō tū Gāius, ego Gāia. The formula was unchanged, no matter what the names of the bride and groom, and goes back to a time when Gāius was a nōmen, not a praenōmen (§55). It implied that the bride was actually entering the gēns of the groom (§§23, 28, 35), and was probably chosen for its lucky meaning (§44). Even in marriages sine conventiōne the old formula came to be used, its import having been lost in lapse of time. The bride and groom then took their places side by side at the left of the altar and facing it, sitting on stools covered with the pelt of the sheep slain for the sacrifice.

FIGURE 15. A CAMILLUS

82 A bloodless offering was then made to Jupiter by the Pontifex Maximus and the Flāmen Diālis, consisting of the cake of spelt (farreum lībum) from which the cōnfarreātiō got its name. With the offering to Jupiter a prayer was recited by the Flamen to Juno as the goddess of marriage, and to Tellus, Picumnus, and Pilumnus, deities of the country and its fruits. The utensils necessary for the offering were carried in a covered basket (cumerus) by a boy called camillus (Fig. 15), whose parents must have both been living at the time (patrīmus et mātrīmus). Then followed the congratulations, the guests using the word fēlīciter.

      83 The coēmptiō began with the fictitious sale, carried out in the presence of no less than five witnesses. The purchase money represented by a single coin was laid in the scales held by a lībripēns. The scales, scaleholder, coin, and witnesses were all necessary for this kind of marriage. Then followed the dextrārum iūnctiō and the words of consent, borrowed, as has been said, from the confarreate ceremony. Originally the groom had asked the bride: An sibi māter familiās esse vellet. She assented, and put to him a similar question: An sibi pater familiās esse vellet. To this he too gave the answer "Yes." A prayer was then recited and sometimes perhaps a sacrifice offered, after which came the congratulations as in the other and more elaborate ceremony.

      84 The third form, that is, the ceremonies preliminary to ūsus, probably admitted of more variation than either of the others, but no description has come down to us. We may be sure that the hands were clasped, the words of consent spoken, and congratulations offered, but we know of no special customs or usages. It was almost necessary for the three forms to get more or less alike in the course of time, though the cake of spelt could not be borrowed from the confarreate ceremony by either of the others, or the scales and their holder from the ceremony of coēmptiō.

      85 The Wedding Feast.—After the conclusion of the ceremony came the wedding feast (cēna nūptiālis) lasting until evening. There can be no doubt that this was regularly given at the house of the bride's father and that the few cases when we know that it was given at the groom's house were exceptional and due to special circumstances which might cause a similar change to-day. The feast seems to have concluded with the distribution among the guests of pieces of the wedding cake (mustāceum), which was made of meal steeped in must (§296) and served on bay leaves. There came to be so much extravagance at these feasts and at the repōtia mentioned below (§89) that under Augustus it was proposed to limit their cost by law to one thousand sesterces ($50), a piece of sumptuary legislation as vain as such restrictions have usually proved to be.

      86 The Bridal Procession.—After the wedding feast the bride was formally taken to her husband's house. This ceremony was called СКАЧАТЬ