who must be Roman citizens of age, and the
divorce must be publicly registered. The act was, however, purely an act
of the party performing it, and no idea of judicial interference or
contract seems to have been entertained. It was not necessary for either
husband or wife giving the bill to acquaint the other with it before its
execution, though it was considered proper to deliver the bill, when
made, to the other party. In this way a wife could divorce a lunatic
husband, or the _paterfamilias_ of a lunatic wife could divorce her from
her husband. But the _lex Julia_ was also the first of a series of
enactments by which pecuniary consequences were imposed on divorce both
by husbands and wives, whether the intention was to restrain divorce by
penalties of this nature, or to readjust pecuniary relations settled on
the basis of marriage and disturbed by its rupture. It was provided that
if the wife was guilty of adultery, her husband in divorcing her could
retain one-sixth of her _dos_, but if she had committed a less serious
offence, one-eighth. If the husband was guilty of adultery, he had to
make immediate restitution of her dowry, or if it consisted of land, the
annual proceeds for three years; if he was guilty of a less serious
offence, he had six months within which to restore the _dos_. If both
parties were in fault, no penalty fell on either. The _lex Julia_ was
followed by a series of acts of legislation extending and modifying its
provisions. The legislation of Constantine, A.D. 331, specified certain
causes for which alone a divorce could take place without the imposition
of pecuniary penalties. There were three causes for which a wife could
divorce her husband with impunity: (1) murder, (2) preparation of
poisons, (3) violation of tombs; but if she divorced him for any other
cause, such as drunkenness, or gambling or immoral society, she
forfeited her dowry and incurred the further penalty of deportation.
There were also three causes for which a husband could divorce his wife
without incurring any penalty: (1) adultery, (2) preparation of poisons,
(3) acting as a procuress. If he divorced her for any other cause, he
forfeited all interest in her dowry; and if he married again, the first
wife could take the dowry of the second.

In A.D. 421 the emperors Honorius and Theodosius enacted a law of
divorce which introduced limitations on the power of remarriage as an
additional penalty in certain cases. As regards a w