Of course, historians have provided answers. Here, from a different perspective, sociologists and anthropologists want to examine the collapse of the Roman Empire through the lens of “cultural significance” to uncover a different answer that belongs to the depths of humanity.
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In ancient times, the Romans practiced marriage in four forms. The first was abduction; the second was cohabitation; the third was religious marriage; and the fourth was purchase.
The first form involved coercion and occurred in primitive times. As the population grew, this form transitioned into cohabitation, where a man and woman lived together for a time before formalizing their marriage. As long as the couple lived together continuously for a year or more, the woman’s family would lose their patriarchal rights, and she would belong to her husband and his family. What constitutes continuous cohabitation? The Romans believed that if a wife left her husband for three days and nights, she would have to start over.
The third form, religious marriage, was celebrated with great formality and complex rituals. The wedding consisted of three main stages: the giving away of the bride, the welcoming of the bride, and the marriage ceremony. The fourth form was marriage by purchase. In this case, women were treated as commodities: a man needed only five witnesses and a person to manage the scales to buy a wife. In front of the witnesses, the groom would hold a valuable item in one hand and a piece of bronze in the other, declaring: “According to Roman law, this item is my property; I use this bronze and the scales to purchase it.” After placing the coin on the scale, he was granted the patriarchal rights over his wife. This form of marriage was the simplest and most widely practiced in Rome at the time.
Ancient Roman society absolutized the husband’s rights. A husband could leave his wife at any time, while the wife was expected to remain faithful. If a husband caught his wife committing adultery, he had the right to kill her on the spot. Even if he merely heard rumors about her infidelity, the husband could “take action.”
By 195 BC, Roman women revolted, surrounding the Senate, demanding rights and freedoms. From that point on, the strict atmosphere within families gradually dissipated, leading to the collapse of the old moral standards. During this time, the primary goal for men in marriage was to obtain a dowry. Thus, as long as the wife did not disturb him, the husband allowed her considerable freedom in her lifestyle. Consequently, by around the 2nd century BC, Roman women gradually freed themselves from familial constraints. Instances of adultery and their sexual lives became as liberated as those of men. Previously, women had no right to divorce, but now they could seek divorce for any reason. A contemporary poet even sarcastically remarked:
In five winters
She changed husbands eight times
And proudly wanted to engrave her achievements on her tombstone!
The looseness of family structures left many husbands extremely dissatisfied. As a result, Emperor Augustus issued an edict: If a husband discovered his wife in an affair, he must divorce her, or face severe penalties. Under this law, “adulteresses” would be exiled to a deserted island and prohibited from remarrying, while “adulterers” would be sent to another island. Even men involved with unregistered prostitutes could be prosecuted. Consequently, the number of registered prostitutes surged, to the extent that many noblewomen also sought registration as prostitutes!
The Beginning of the Collapse
During the late Republic period, theaters and arenas flourished in Rome, making it easier for men and women to meet. In outdoor venues, young men and women could sit together to watch plays or wrestling matches. This created favorable conditions for love to blossom freely.
In ancient times, the Romans spoke little of culture, as they devoted all their energy to warfare. Therefore, they preferred to discuss discipline and responsibility rather than cultural identity. However, as the great Roman Empire was established, the Romans became the masters of immense wealth and slaves, and their luxurious lifestyle began to change them. Their sense of “identity” also became distorted. To illustrate this transformation, we can examine the worship of the Roman gods. Initially, they revered cold, stern figures that symbolized abstract morals meant to protect the Romans. The most representative of these deities was Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, who safeguarded the prosperity of the nation and the peace of the family. In numerous ancient Roman sculptures, this goddess is depicted as modest and upright despite being completely nude.
To worship this goddess, six virgins from noble families were chosen. From the age of ten, these six young women were brought into the temple to completely dedicate themselves to the purely religious rituals for thirty years. The virtues of these priestesses were considered a sacred guarantee of the nation’s prosperity.
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