416 THE UEVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. The wife was bonglit by the husband — coemptio ; from that time she was recognized in law as a part of liis property — familia. She was in his hands, and ranked as his daughter, absolutely as if the religious ceremony had been performed.' ^Ye cannot affirm that this proceeding was not older tlian the Twelve Tables. It is at least certain that the new legislation recognized it as legitimate. It thus gave the plebeian a private law, which was analogous in its effects to the law of the patricians, though it differed widely in principle. Usus corresponds to coemptio ; these are two forms of the same act. Every object may be acquired in either of two ways — by purchase or by use ; the same is the case with the fictitious property in the wife. Use here was one year's cohabitation ; it established between husband and wife the same legal tics as purchase or the reli- gious ceremony. It is hardly necessary to add that the cohabitation was to be preceded by marriage, at least by the plebeian marriage, which was contracted by the consent and affection of the j^arties. Neither the coemptio nor the usus created a moral union be- tween husband and wife. They came after marriage — merely established a legal right. These were not, as has been too often repeated, modes of marriage; they were only means of acquiring the marital and paternal power.* But the marital authority of ancient times had con- sequences, which, at the epoch of history to which we have arrived, began to appear excessive. We have ' Gaius, I. lU. ' Gaius, I. Ill; qiicB anno continuo wftx pcrseverabat. So little was the coemptio a mode of marriage that a wife might contract it with another besides her husband — with a guardian, for example.
