When Being Single Cost You Double
Being unmarried can be taxing — and I don’t mean emotionally
Is there a right age to get married or to begin a long-term relationship?
Today, the answer might be something along the line of when you feel ready, or when you are mentally and emotionally prepared for the commitment, or even there is no such thing as a ‘right age’.
In the past, it would have been more like “why aren’t you married already?”
For most of history, being single has been frowned upon — and I don’t mean the way your mother keeps asking when you’re finally going to settle down and give her a couple of grandchildren.
With few exceptions Jews, Christians and Muslims, as well as most native African and Native American religious traditions, strongly opposed celibacy: the general rule was that everybody had to get married — and preferably ASAP.
This resulted in a few unlikely laws that required people to pay additional taxes or sanctions if they failed to say “I do” by a certain age.
The Romans, in particular, viewed celibacy as an aberration and, in 9 AD, emperor Augustus introduced the first bachelor tax to encourage marriage. The Lex Papia Poppaea, which expanded and developed the previous Lex Iulia de Maritandis Ordinibus…
