The Scary Obsession With Marriage In The Roman Empire
Augustus was a great-great-grandfather before his death at 75.
Not only did he get married as early as possible but he took it into his own hands to marry off all of his family at the ripe age of 15 to 19. Because of this, the Roman aristocratic class was being renewed every 20 years.
His only daughter was Julia but he also facilitated marriages for his nephews and nieces: the children of Octavia, his sister, and Livia, his wife. The aristocratic family tree was a mess: full of past marriages, early deaths, and adoptions. As a result, the family was filled with deceit, back handed negotiations, and unwanted children.
But he didn’t do any of this for fun. Instead, there was this terrible fear he had that the royals would someday fall to the peasants because of high mortality rates and changing social ecosystems.
At this time the Romans didn’t see the benefits of marriage, similar to our society today. Women believed marriage would only risk their dowry and claimed that it would be smarter to not get married at all. They also didn’t like the idea of being restricted in who they could converse with and where they could go. Men on the other hand didn’t have that much of an issue, but they did refuse to marry anyone that was below them in the social classes. Due to these circumstances, marriage was becoming more and more of a rarity.
This was Augustus’ biggest fear.
What would happen to the aristocratic class if there was no heir?
This is why Claudius, Livia’s grandson, was married three times; Julia, Augustus’ daughter, was married four times. Each subsequent marriage is another attempt at a powerful heir.
See, because of all of these relationships, inbreeding became common which led to deformities in children, mental and physical — as we saw with Claudius who was believed to suffer from cerebral palsy. Yet Augustus overlooked this issue with the great idea of simply ‘making more.’ This is why he also gave several speeches to both single and married men of Roman society.
To the married men, he congratulated them. Claiming that they were the lifeblood of Rome and they should be proud of them (in comparison to the unmarried).
Then to the unmarried, he brought his rage. Claiming that they were resisting the natural order of man by not having the decency to mate and procreate.
All of this led to a weakening of the aristocratic led nation. Which, through historical timelines, did not have quite a prosperous line of emperors. I’d even say that because of these strict regulations that were forced onto successors we notice great resentment towards familial bonds. Nero assassinated his mother, Julia planned to overthrow her father, Caracalla killed his brother.
One by one the Romans offered occupation over overwhelming happiness.
And too…their demise
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