MATRIMONIUM

Lat. In Roman law. A legal marriage, contracted in strict accordance with the forms of the older Roman law, i.e., either with the farreum, the co emptio, or by usus. This was allowed only to Roman citizens and to those neighboring peoples to whom the right of connubvum had been conceded. The effect of such a marriage was to bring the wife into the manus, or marital power, of the husband, and to create the patria potestas over the children. Matrimonium subsequens tollit pec eatum prsecedens. Subsequent marriage cures preceding criminality.