of children was ultimately for the benefit of the state.[1] Legitimation of children by subsequent marriage had long been recognized, and Justinian extended the principle by a decree that a woman seduced under promise of marriage could compel her lover to complete the contract, or, in default, to endow her with a quarter of his property.[2] By a law of Anastasius, illegitimate children were called on to inherit the estate in the case of an intestacy without legal offspring, but in the second year of Justin this rule was abrogated. At the beginning of his reign, however, Justinian restored the former claim to the extent of one half, and later he supplemented it by enacting that a father could leave all his possessions to his natural children if he had none who were legitimate.[3]
From the first ages of the Republic liberty to divorce his wife was considered to be the inalienable right of every Roman, but the privilege was rarely, if ever, taken advantage of in the primitive community. This strict attachment, however, to the conjugal contract gradually disappeared, and in Imperial times the marriage bond was tied and loosed on many occasions in their lives by persons of unstable character. Not until the fifth century did the Christian emperors attempt to impose any stringency on the freedom of divorce, when the younger Theodosius published a list of offences, in the
- ↑ Cod., VI, xl; Nov. xxii, 43. He speaks of a law said to have been passed by one Julius Miscellus, but there was no such person. For a clue to the muddle, see Daremberg and S. Dict. Antiq. sb. Lex, where the best list of these old laws will be found.
- ↑ Nov. lxxiv, 4, etc. He excuses these lapses by "nothing is stronger than the fury of love, and how can those so affected resist the blandishments of those they love?"
- ↑ Cod. V, xxvii, 6, 7, 8; Nov. lxxxix, 12, 15, etc. Incestuous children are, however, barred from all such privileges.
