Dissolution of Marriage

A Roman marriage could be dissolved in various ways: by the death, loss of liberty or loss of citizenship of either party,title="">^[222] or by divorce (divortium)—the latter existed as the most common form of ending a marriage.

In contrast with modern legal systems that regard divorce as a juristic act performed in a court of law, Roman divorce was a purely factual act initiated by the person concerned in accordance with established religious and moral principles.

As is often the case in modern and traditional societies, a high divorce rate was viewed as a threat to social stability and hence various measures were introduced at different epochs designed to address this problem. During the earliest period of Roman history, divorce was permitted only if the wife had committed adultery or another serious breach of family or matrimonial duties or if she could not bear children.^[225] Although the relevant moral norms weakened considerably during the later republican age, divorce without a good cause was nevertheless regarded in some sense as dishonourable and entailed certain social sanctions.^[226] Soon after his accession to power, Augustus enacted the lex lulia de adulteriis (18 bc) whereby divorce was made compulsory in the case of adultery.^[227] At the same time, however, his lex lulia de maritandis ordinibus (18 bc) introduced certain limitations on the right to obtain a divorce. Under the legislation of Christian emperors in the later imperial period, the practice of divorce was further restricted and severe penalties were decreed for those who unilaterally repudiated their marriage without a good reason.^[228] However, the principle of the dissolubility of marriage was never called into question.

2.4