MATRĀLĬA, a festival celebrated at Rome every year on the 11th of
June, in honour of the goddess Mater Matuta, whose temple stood in
the Forum Boarium. It was celebrated only by Roman matrons, and
the sacrifices offered to the goddess consisted of cakes baked in
pots of earthenware. Slaves were not allowed to take part in the
solemnities, or to enter the temple of the goddess. One slave,
however, was admitted by the matrons, but only to be exposed to a
humiliating treatment, for one of the matrons gave her a blow on the
cheek, and then sent her away from the temple. The matrons on this
occasion took with them the children of their sisters, but not their
own, held them in their arms, and prayed for their welfare.
MĀTRŌNĀLĬA, a festival celebrated on the Kalends of March in honour
of Juno Lucina. Hence Horace says, “Martiis _caelebs_ quid agam
Kalendis.”
MĀTRĬMŌNĬUM NUPTĬAE (γάμος), marriage. (1) GREEK. The ancient Greek
legislators considered the relation of marriage as a matter not
merely of private, but also of public or general interest. This
was particularly the case at Sparta, where proceedings might be
taken against those who married too late or unsuitably, as well as
against those who did not marry at all. But independent of public
considerations, there were also private or personal reasons, peculiar
to the ancients, which made marriage an obligation. One of these was
the duty incumbent upon every individual to provide for a continuance
of representatives to succeed himself as ministers of the Divinity;
and another was the desire felt by almost every one, not merely to
perpetuate his own name, but to leave some one who might make the
customary offerings at his grave. We are told that with this view
childless persons sometimes adopted children. The choice of a wife
among the ancients was but rarely grounded upon affection, and
scarcely ever could have been the result of previous acquaintance
or familiarity. In many cases a father chose for his son a bride
whom the latter had never seen, or compelled him to marry for the
sake of checking his extravagances. By the Athenian laws a citizen
was not allowed to marry with a foreign woman, nor conversely,
under very severe penalties, but proximity by blood (ἀγχιστεία), or
consanguinity (συγγένεια), was not, with some few exceptions, a bar
to marriage in any part of Greece; direct lineal descent was. At
Athens the most important preliminary to marriage was the betrothal
(ἐγγύησις), which was in fact indispensable to the complete validity
of a marriage contract. It was made by the natural or legal guardian
(ὁ κύριος) of the bride elect, and attended by the relatives of
both parties as witnesses. The wife’s dowry was settled at the
betrothal. On the day before the _gamos_, or marriage, or sometimes
on the day itself, certain sacrifices or offerings (προτέλεια γάμων
or προγάμεια) were made to the gods who presided over marriage.
Another ceremony of almost general observance on the wedding day,
was the bathing of both the bride and bridegroom in water fetched
from some particular fountain, whence, as some think, the custom
of placing the figure of a λουτροφόρος or “water carrier” over the
tombs of those who died unmarried. After these preliminaries, the
bride was generally conducted from her father’s to the house of the
bridegroom at nightfall, in a chariot (ἐφ’ ἁμάξης) drawn by a pair
of males or oxen, and furnished with a kind of couch (κλινίς) as a
seat. On either side of her sat the bridegroom and one of his most
intimate friends or relations, who from his office was called the
_paranymph_ (παράνυμφος or νυμφευτής); but as he rode in the carriage
(ὄχημα) with the bride and bridegroom, he was sometimes called the
πάροχος. The nuptial procession was probably accompanied, according
to circumstances, by a number of persons, some of whom carried the
nuptial torches. Both bride and bridegroom (the former veiled) were
decked out in their best attire, with chaplets on their heads,
and the doors of their houses were hung with festoons of ivy and
bay. As the bridal procession moved along, the hymenaean song was
sung to the accompaniment of Lydian flutes, even in olden times,
as beautifully described by Homer, and the married pair received
the greetings and congratulations of those who met them. After
entering the bridegroom’s house, into which the bride was probably
conducted by his mother, bearing a lighted torch, it was customary
to shower sweetmeats upon them (καταχύσματα), as emblems of plenty
and prosperity. After this came the nuptial feast, to which the
name _gamos_ was particularly applied; it was generally given in
the house of the bridegroom or his parents; and besides being a
festive meeting, served other and more important purposes. There
was no public rite, whether civil or religious, connected with the
celebration of marriage amongst the ancient Greeks, and therefore no
public record of its solemnisation. This deficiency then was supplied
by the marriage feast, for the guests were of course competent to
prove the fact of a marriage having taken place. To this feast,
contrary to the usual practice amongst the Greeks, women were invited
as well as men; but they seem to have sat at a separate table, with
the bride still veiled amongst them. At the conclusion of this feast
she was conducted by her husband into the bridal chamber; and a
law of Solon required that on entering it they should eat a quince
together, as if to indicate that their conversation ought to be
sweet and agreeable. The song called the _Epithalamium_ was then sung
before the doors of the bridal chamber. The day after the marriage,
the first of the bride’s residence in her new abode, was called
the _epaulia_ (ἐπαύλια); on which their friends sent the customary
presents to the newly married couple. On another day, the _apaulia_
(ἀπαύλια), perhaps the second after marriage, the bridegroom left
his house, to lodge apart from his wife at his father’s-in-law.
Some of the presents made to the bride by her husband and friends
were called _anacalypteria_ (ἀνακαλυπτήρια), as being given on the
occasion of the bride first appearing unveiled: they were probably
given on the _epaulia_, or day after the marriage. Another ceremony
observed after marriage was the sacrifice which the husband offered
up on the occasion of his bride being registered amongst his own
phratores. The above account refers to Athenian customs.--At Sparta
the betrothal of the bride by her father or guardian (κύριος) was
requisite as a preliminary of marriage, as well as at Athens. Another
custom peculiar to the Spartans, and a relic of ancient times, was
the seizure of the bride by her intended husband, but of course with
the sanction of her parents or guardians. She was not, however,
immediately domiciled in her husband’s house, but cohabited with him
for some time clandestinely, till he brought her, and frequently
her mother also, to his home.--The Greeks, generally speaking,
entertained little regard for the female character. They considered
women, in fact, as decidedly inferior to men, qualified to discharge
only the subordinate functions in life, and rather necessary as
helpmates than agreeable as companions. To these notions female
education for the most part corresponded, and in fact confirmed
them; it did not supply the elegant accomplishments and refinement
of manners which permanently engage the affections, when other
attractions have passed away. Aristotle states, that the relation of
man to woman is that of the governor to the subject; and Plato, that
a woman’s virtue may be summed up in a few words, for she has only
to manage the house well, keeping what there is in it, and obeying
her husband. Among the Dorians, however, and especially at Sparta,
women enjoyed much more estimation than in the rest of Greece.--(2)
ROMAN. A legal Roman marriage was called _justae nuptiae_, _justum
matrimonium_, as being conformable to _jus_ (_civile_) or to law. A
legal marriage was either _Cum conventione uxoris in manum viri_ or
it was without this convention. But both forms of marriage agreed
in this: there must be connubium between the parties, and consent.
The legal consequences as to the power of the father over his
children were the same in both. _Connubium_ is merely a term which
comprehends all the conditions of a legal marriage. Generally it may
be stated, that there was only connubium between Roman citizens;
the cases in which it at any time existed between parties, not both
Roman citizens, were exceptions to the general rule. Originally,
or at least at one period of the republic, there was no connubium
between the patricians and the plebeians; but this was altered by the
Lex Canuleia (B.C. 445.), which allowed connubium between persons
of those two classes. There were various degrees of consanguinity
and affinity, within which there was no connubium. An illegal union
of a male and female, though affecting to be, was not a marriage:
the man had no legal wife, and the children had no legal father:
consequently they were not in the power of their reputed father. The
marriage _Cum conventione_ differed from that _Sine conventione_,
in the relationship which it effected between the husband and the
wife; the marriage _cum conventione_ was a necessary condition to
make a woman a _materfamilias_. By the marriage cum conventione,
the wife passed into the familia of her husband, and was to him
in the relation of a daughter, or, as it was expressed, _in manum
convenit_. In the marriage sine conventione, the wife’s relation
to her own familia remained as before, and she was merely _uxor_.
“_Uxor_,” says Cicero, “is a genus of which there are two species;
one is _materfamilias, quae in manum convenit_; the other is _uxor_
only.” Accordingly, a materfamilias is a wife who is in manu, and
in the familia of her husband. A wife not in manu was not a member
of her husband’s familia, and therefore the term could not apply
to her. _Matrona_ was properly a wife not in manu, and equivalent
to uxor; and she was called matrona before she had any children.
But these words are not always used in these their original and
proper meanings. It does not appear that any forms were requisite
in the marriage sine conventione; and apparently the evidence of
such marriage was cohabitation matrimonii causa. The matrimonii
causa might be proved by various kinds of evidence. In the case of
a marriage cum conventione, there were three forms, 1. _Usus_, 2.
_Farreum_, and 3. _Coemptio_.--1. Marriage was effected by _usus_,
if a woman lived with a man for a whole year as his wife; and this
was by analogy to usucaption of movables generally, in which usus
for one year gave ownership. The Law of the Twelve Tables provided,
that if a woman did not wish to come into the manus of her husband
in this manner, she should absent herself from him annually for
three nights (_trinoctium_) and so break the usus of the year.
2. _Farreum_ was a form of marriage, in which certain words were
used in the presence of ten witnesses, and were accompanied by a
certain religious ceremony, in which panis farreus was employed;
and hence this form of marriage was also called _confarreatio_.
It appears that certain priestly offices, such as that of Flamen
Dialis, could only be held by those who were born of parents who
had been married by this ceremony (_confarreati parentes_). 3.
_Coemptio_ was effected by mancipatio, and consequently the wife was
in mancipio. [MANCIPIUM.] A woman who was cohabiting with a man as
uxor, might come into his manus by this ceremony, in which case the
coemptio was said to be matrimonii causa, and she who was formerly
uxor became _apud maritum filiae loco_. _Sponsalia_ were not an
unusual preliminary of marriage, but they were not necessary.--The
sponsalia were an agreement to marry, made in such form as to give
each party a right of action in case of non-performance, and the
offending party was condemned in such damages as to the judex seemed
just. The woman who was promised in marriage was accordingly called
_sponsa_, which is equivalent to promissa; the man who was engaged
to marry was called _sponsus_.--The sponsalia were of course not
binding, if the parties consented to waive the contract. Sometimes
a present was made by the future husband to the future wife by way
of earnest (_arrha_, _arrha sponsalitia_), or, as it was called,
_propter nuptias donatio_.--The consequences of marriage were--1.
The power of the father over the children of the marriage, which was
a completely new relation, an effect indeed of marriage, but one
which had no influence over the relation of the husband and wife.
[PATRIA POTESTAS.] 2. The liabilities of either of the parties to
the punishments affixed to the violation of the marriage union.
[ADULTERIUM; DIVORTIUM.] 3. The relation of husband and wife with
respect to property. [DOS.] When marriage was dissolved, the parties
to it might marry again; but opinion considered it more decent for a
woman not to marry again. A woman was required by usage (_mos_) to
wait a year before she contracted a second marriage, on the pain of
infamia.--It remains to describe the customs and rites which were
observed by the Romans at marriages. After the parties had agreed to
marry and the persons in whose potestas they were had consented, a
meeting of friends was sometimes held at the house of the maiden for
the purpose of settling the marriage-contract, which was written on
tablets, and signed by both parties. The woman after she had promised
to become the wife of a man was called _sponsa_, _pacta_, _dicta_,
or _sperata_. It appears that, at least during the imperial period,
the man put a ring on the finger of his betrothed, as a pledge of
his fidelity. This ring was probably, like all rings at this time,
worn on the left hand, and on the finger nearest to the smallest.
The last point to be fixed was the day on which the marriage was to
take place. The Romans believed that certain days were unfortunate
for the performance of the marriage rites, either on account of
the religious character of those days themselves, or on account of
the days by which they were followed, as the woman had to perform
certain religious rites on the day after her wedding, which could
not take place on a dies ater. Days not suitable for entering upon
matrimony were the calends, nones, and ides of every month, all dies
atri, the whole months of May and February, and a great number of
festivals. On the wedding-day, which in the early times was never
fixed upon without consulting the auspices, the bride was dressed
in a long white robe with a purple fringe, or adorned with ribands.
This dress was called _tunica recta_, and was bound round the waist
with a girdle (_corona_, _cingulum_, or _zona_), which the husband
had to untie in the evening. The bridal veil, called _flammeum_,
was of a bright yellow colour, and her shoes likewise. Her hair was
divided on this occasion with the point of a spear. The bride was
conducted to the house of her husband in the evening. She was taken
with apparent violence from the arms of her mother, or of the person
who had to give her away. On her way she was accompanied by three
boys dressed in the praetexta, and whose fathers and mothers were
still alive (_patrimi et matrimi_). One of them carried before her
a torch of white thorn (_spina_), or, according to others, of pine
wood; the two others walked by her side, supporting her by the arm.
The bride herself carried a distaff and a spindle, with wool. A boy
called _camillus_ carried in a covered vase (_cumera_, _cumerum_, or
_camillum_), the so-called utensils of the bride and playthings for
children (_crepundia_). Besides these persons who officiated on the
occasion, the procession was attended by a numerous train of friends,
both of the bride and the bridegroom. When the procession arrived
at the house of the bridegroom, the door of which was adorned with
garlands and flowers, the bride was carried across the threshold by
_pronubi_, _i.e._ men who had been married to only one woman, that
she might not knock against it with her foot, which would have been
an evil omen. Before she entered the house, she wound wool around the
door-posts of her new residence, and anointed them with lard (_adeps
suillus_) or wolf’s fat (_adeps lupinus_). The husband received her
with fire and water, which the woman had to touch. This was either a
symbolic purification, or a symbolic expression of welcome, as the
interdicere aqua et igni was the formula for banishment. The bride
saluted her husband with the words: _ubi tu Caius, ego Caia_. After
she had entered the house with distaff and spindle, she was placed
upon a sheep-skin, and here the keys of the house were delivered
into her hands. A repast (_coena nuptialis_) given by the husband
to the whole train of relatives and friends who accompanied the
bride, generally concluded the solemnity of the day. Many ancient
writers mention a very popular song, _Talasius_ or _Talassio_, which
was sung at weddings; but whether it was sung during the repast or
during the procession is not quite clear, though we may infer from
the story respecting the origin of the song, that it was sung while
the procession was advancing towards the house of the husband. It may
easily be imagined that a solemnity like that of marriage did not
take place among the merry and humorous Italians without a variety
of jests and railleries, and the ancient writers mention songs which
were sung before the door of the bridal apartment by girls, after
the company had left. These songs were probably the old Fescennina
[FESCENNINA], and are frequently called _Epithalamia_. At the end of
the repast the bride was conducted by matrons who had not had more
than one husband (_pronubae_), to the lectus genialis in the atrium,
which was on this occasion magnificently adorned and strewed with
flowers. On the following day the husband sometimes gave another
entertainment to his friends, which was called _repotia_, and the
woman, who on this day undertook the management of the house of her
husband, had to perform certain religious rites; on which account,
as was observed above, it was necessary to select a day for the
marriage which was not followed by a dies ater. These rites probably
consisted of sacrifices to the Dii Penates. The position of a Roman
woman after marriage was very different from that of a Greek woman.
The Roman presided over the whole household; she educated her
children, watched over and preserved the honour of the house, and as
the materfamilias she shared the honours and respect shown to her
husband. Far from being confined like the Greek women to a distinct
apartment, the Roman matron, at least during the better centuries
of the republic, occupied the most important part of the house, the
atrium.
MAUSŌLĒUM Μαυσωλεῖον, signified originally _the sepulchre of
Mausolus_, which was a magnificent monument erected at Halicarnassus
B.C. 353, by Artemisia, the widow of Mausolus. (See _Classical
Dict., art. Artemisia_.) It was adorned with beautiful works of
art, and was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world.
The word _Mausoleum_ was used by the Romans as a generic name for
any magnificent sepulchral edifice. Mausolus, the dynast of Caria,
having died in B.C. 353, his queen Artemisia evinced her sorrow
by observing his funeral rites with the most expensive splendour,
and by commencing the erection of a sepulchral monument to him at
Halicarnassus, which should surpass any thing the world had yet seen.
The building extended 63 feet from north to south, being shorter on
the fronts, and its whole circuit was 411 feet (or, according to the
Bamberg MS., 440); it rose to the height of 25 cubits (37½ feet);
and was surrounded by 36 columns. This part of the building was
called _Pteron_. It was adorned with sculptures in relief, on its
eastern face by Scopas, on the northern by Bryaxis, on the southern
by Timotheus, on the western by Leochares. Above this _pteron_ was
a pyramid equal to it in height, diminishing by 24 steps to its
summit, which was surmounted by the marble quadriga made by Pythis.
The total height, including this ornament, was 140 feet. In the Roman
_Mausolea_ the form chiefly employed was that of a succession of
terraces in imitation of the _rogus_. Of these the most celebrated
were those of Augustus and of Hadrian; the latter of which, stripped
of its ornaments, still forms the fortress of modern Rome (the castle
of S. Angelo); but of the other, which was on a still larger scale,
and which was considered as one of the most magnificent buildings of
Augustus, there are only some insignificant ruins.
MĔDĬASTĪNI, the name given to slaves, used for any common purpose.
The name is chiefly given to certain slaves belonging to the familia
rustica, but it is also applied sometimes to slaves in the city.
MĔDIMNUS μέδιμνος, the principal dry measure of the Greeks. It was
used especially for measuring corn. The Attic medimnus was equal
to six Roman modii. For its subdivisions see Tables at the end.
[METRETES; CHOENIX; XESTES; COTYLA.]
MĒDIX TUTICUS, the name of the supreme magistrate among the Oscan
people. _Medix_ appears to have signified a magistrate of any kind,
and _tuticus_ to have been equivalent to _magnus_ or _summus_. Livy,
therefore, in calling the medix tuticus the _summus magistratus_,
gives a literal translation of the word.
MĔGĂLĒSĬA, MĔGĂLENSĬA, or MĔGĂLENSES LŪDI, a festival with games,
celebrated at Rome in the month of April and in honour of the great
mother of the gods (Cybelé, μεγάλη θεός, whence the festival derived
its name). The statue of the goddess was brought to Rome from
Pessinus in B.C. 203, and the day of its arrival was solemnised with
a magnificent procession, lectisternia, and games, and great numbers
of people carried presents to the goddess on the Capitol. The regular
celebration of the Megalesia, however, did not begin till twelve
years later (B.C. 191), when the temple, which had been vowed and
ordered to be built in B.C. 203, was completed and dedicated by M.
Junius Brutus. The festival lasted for six days, beginning on the 4th
of April. The season of this festival, like that of the whole month
in which it took place, was full of general rejoicings and feasting.
It was customary for the wealthy Romans on this occasion to invite
one another mutually to their repasts. The games which were held at
the Megalesia were purely scenic, and not circenses. They were at
first held on the Palatine, in front of the temple of the goddess,
but afterwards also in the theatres. The day which was especially
set apart for the performance of scenic plays was the third of the
festival. Slaves were not permitted to be present at the games, and
the magistrates appeared dressed in a purple toga and praetexta,
whence the proverb, _purpura Megalensis_. The games were under the
superintendence of the curule aediles, and we know that four of the
extant plays of Terence were performed at the Megalesia.