_Polygamy_ (Vol. ix., p. 246.).--The practice of monogamy had been
established among the Jews before the Christian era, as is shown by various
expressions in the New Testament; but their law (like that of other
oriental nations) still permitted polygamy, and they were expressly
prohibited by an enactment of the Emperor Theodosius, of the year 393, from
marrying several wives at the same time (Cod. 1. 9. 7.); so that the
practice was not then extinct among them. Monogamy was the law and practice
of all the Greek and Italian communities, so far back as our accounts
reach. There is no trace of polygamy in Homer. Even in the incestuous
marriages supposed by him in the mythical family of Aeolus, the monogamic
rule is observed, _Odyssey_, x. 7. The Roman law recognised monogamy alone,
and hence polygamy was prohibited in the entire Roman empire. It thus
became practically the rule of Christians, and was engrafted into the canon
law of the Eastern and Western Churches.