The Marriage Alliance in the Roman Elite

Abstract

Elite marriage in Rome in the late Republic and early Empire was con tracted between noble houses of equivalent status, often for immediate political gains. Contrary to views advanced by some scholars, spouses nonetheless enter tained strong expectations of conjugal loyalty and happiness but marriage was relatively fragile. Power was vested in the older generation rather than men as such. A separate matrimonial regime was usually maintained during marriage and dowry was essentially recoverable on divorce or widowhood. Upper class women were therefore relatively independent although they subordinated in dividual preference to corporate interests. Their primary loyalty was to their natal kin but they observed the obligation to redistribute their dowry and patrimony in the following generation to their children, who belonged to the father's lineage.