Concubinatus

A concubinatus (Latin for "concubinage" – see also concubina, "concubine", considered milder than paelex, and concubinus, "bridegroom") was an institution of quasi-marriage between Roman citizens who for various reasons did not want to enter into a full marriage. The institution was often found in unbalanced couples, where one of the members belonged to a higher social class or where one of the two was freed and the other one was freeborn.[1] However it differed from a contubernium, where at least one of the partners was a slave.[2][3]

Not to be confused with Contubernium.
Fragment of wall painting showing two Roman lovers in bed, from the House of L. Caecilius Jucundus in Pompeii, ca. 50–79 AD, Naples National Archaeological Museum.

In Roman law

What legally differentiated a concubinage from a marriage was a lack of affectio maritalis ("marital affection"), which was the desire of having a legal spouse, raise their rank, make them their equal, or the corresponding intent from the other party involved.[4][5] A person registered in a concubinatus was not allowed to have a spouse at the same time.[2]

Emperor Augustus' Leges Juliae gave the first legal recognition of concubinage, defining it as cohabitation without marital status. Concubinatus came to define many relationships and marriages considered unsuitable under Roman customs, such a senator's desire to marry a freedwoman, or his cohabitation with a former prostitute.[6] A quasi-marital relationship involving a Roman citizen and a foreigner was not considered a concubinage but was rather equated to a marriage between non-Romans (matrimonium juris gentium),[7] without legal consequences except those deriving from the Jus gentium.

While any couple could live in a concubinage instead of entering into a marriage, they were compelled to give notice to the authorities.[8] This type of cohabitation varied little from actual marriage, except that heirs from this union were not considered legitimate. Often this was the reason that men of high rank would live with a woman in concubinage after the death of their first wife, so that the claims of their children from this first marriage would not be challenged by the children from this later union.[8]

Concubina

The title of concubine was not considered derogatory (as it may be considered today) in ancient Rome, and was often inscribed on tombstones.[8] Concerning the difference between a concubine and a wife, the jurist Julius Paulus wrote in his Opinions that "a concubine differs from a wife only in the regard in which she is held", meaning that a concubine was not considered a social equal to her patron, as his wife was.[9]

Concubines did receive much protection under the law, aside from the legal recognition of their social stature. They largely relied upon their patrons to provide for them. Early Roman law sought to differentiate between the status of concubinage and legal marriage, as demonstrated in a law attributed to Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, circa 716–673 BCE: "A concubine shall not touch the altar of Juno. If she touches it, she shall sacrifice, with her hair unbound, a ewe lamb to Juno";[10] this fragment gives evidence that concubines existed early in the Roman monarchy, but also notes the banning of their involvement in the worship of Juno, the goddess of marriage. Later the jurist Ulpian wrote on the Lex Julia et Papia, "Only those women with whom intercourse is not unlawful can be kept in concubinage without the fear of committing a crime".[11] He also said that "anyone can keep a concubine of any age unless she is less than twelve years old".[11]

Concubinus

A masculine of concubine, concubinus, "man in a concubinage", "male-lover",[12] was also regularly used in Latin, although it is attested less often than concubina. See, for instance, Tac. A. 13, 21: "Nunc per concubinum Atimetum et histrionem Paridem quasi scaenae fabulas componit." ("Now through her paramour, Atimetus, and the actor, Paris, she is, so to say, concocting a drama for the stage").[13]

Polygamy

Despite traditional Roman aversion against polygamy and the fact that according to the Roman law a man could not have a concubine while he had a wife, there are various notable occurrences of this, including the famous cases of the emperors Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, and Vespasian. Suetonius wrote that Augustus "put Scribonia [his second wife] away because she was too free in complaining about the influence of his concubine".[14] Often, in return for payment, concubines would relay appeals to their emperor. This de facto polygamy – for Roman citizens could not legally marry or cohabit with a concubine while also having a legal wife – was "tolerated to the degree that it did not threaten the religious and legal integrity of the family".[15]

See also

Notes
  1. Rawson 1974, p. 288: "Concubinage seems to have been most frequent amongst freed persons."
  2. Stocquart 1907, p. 305: "From matrimonium, we should distinguish; First, concubinatus, a union authorized under Augustus from the leges Julia et Papia, between persons of unequal condition, provided the man had no uxor. The concubina was neither uxor nor pellex, but uxoris loco. The children, issue of such a union, are neither legitimi nor spurii, but naturales. (Cod. 5, 27.) Second, contubernium is the perfectly regular and valid relation between a free man and a slave, or between two slaves. Through the civil law, it produced all the effects arising from the natural law.
  3. Treggiari 1981, p. 53.
  4. Stocquart 1907, p. 304.
  5. Treggiari 1981, p. 58, note 42: "Marriage existed if there was affectio maritalis on the part of both parties. For the difficulty of determining whether a relationship was marriage, see for example Cic. de Or. 1.183, Quint. Decl. 247 (Ritter 11.15), Dig. 23.2.24, Mod. 24.1.32.13, Ulp.; 39.5.31 pr., Pap."
  6. Kiefer 2012, p. 49.
  7. Stocquart 1907, p. 316: "A legal marriage could not be contracted except between Roman citizens enjoying the rights of connubium. However, the inevitable and necessary intercourse with the peregrini compelled the Romans to regulate unions with some other persons. Such a marriage was not a justum matrimonium, but neither was it a concubinage. They called it matrimonium injustum, non legitimum, or matrimonium juris gentium."
  8. Kiefer 2012, p. 50.
  9. Lefkowitz 2005, p. 115.
  10. Lefkowitz 2005, p. 95.
  11. Lefkowitz 2005, p. 110.
  12. See Concŭbīnus. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project.
  13. See Perseus Project Ann.13.21
  14. Kiefer 2012, p. 313.
  15. Grimal 1986, p. 111.

Bibliography
  • Stocquart, Emile (March 1907). Sherman, Charles Phineas (ed.). Translated by Bierkan, Andrew T. "Marriage in Roman law". Yale Law Journal. 16 (5): 303–327. doi:10.2307/785389. JSTOR 785389. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  • Treggiari, Susan (1981). "Contubernales". Phoenix. CAC. 35 (1): 42–69. doi:10.2307/1087137. JSTOR 1087137.
  • Rawson, Beryl (1974). "Roman Concubinage and Other De Facto Marriages". Transactions of the American Philological Association. JHUP. 104: 279–305. doi:10.2307/2936094. JSTOR 2936094.
  • Kiefer, O. (12 November 2012). Sexual Life In Ancient Rome. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-18198-6.
  • Lefkowitz, Mary R.; Fant, Maureen B. (2005). Women's Life in Greece and Rome. Baltimore: JHUP. ISBN 0-8018-4474-6.
  • Grimal, Pierre (1986) [1967]. Love in Ancient Rome. OU Press. ISBN 9780806120140.

Further reading
  • Edwards, Catharine (1993). The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome. Cambridge University Press.
  • Gardner, Jane F. (1991). Women in Roman Law and Society. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20635-9.
  • Nussbaum, Martha C. (2002). "The Incomplete Feminism of Musonius Rufus, Platonist, Stoic, and Roman". The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome. University of Chicago Press.
  • Grubbs, Judith Evans (2002). Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook on Marriage, Divorce and Widowhood. Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781134743926.
  • Betzig, Laura (November 1992). "Roman Monogamy". Ethology and Sociobiology. 13 (5–6): 351–383. doi:10.1016/0162-3095(92)90009-S. hdl:2027.42/29876.
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