Excerpt from The Private Life of the Romans: With Numerous Illustrations The father of the family was its sovereign in his own right (sui im'is). Wife, children, and slaves were his subjects. The legal power of the husband over the wife was expressed by the term mamas. The bride Of those primitive times was merely transferred from her father's rule to that of her husband: She ranked thenceforth as a daughter of her husband's house she came in manum suam, into his hand.1 Her property became his. He might not sell, and, so long as she remained faithful, he might not slay her, but these were the only limits to his power. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.