pe, it should be the only one, or
that the interests of society demand that all connections should be
forced into the same die."

+390. Divorce.+ In the mother family the woman could dismiss her
husband. This she could also do in all the transition forms in which
the husband went to live with the wife at her childhood home. In the
father family the wife, obtained by capture or purchase, belonged to her
husband on the analogy of property. The husband could reject or throw
away his property if he saw fit. It is clear that the physical facts
attendant on the two customs--one that the man went to live with his
wife, the other that he took her to his home--made a great difference in
the status of the woman. In the latter case she fell into dependence and
subjection to the dominion of her husband. She could not divorce him.

+391.+ In Chaldea a man could divorce his wife by saying, "Thou
art not my wife," by repaying her dowry, and giving her a letter
to her father. If she said to him, "Thou art not my husband," she
was drowned. An adulterous woman was driven into the street
clothed only in a loin cloth, at the mercy of the passers.[1246]
In this view, which ran through the Jewish system and came down
into that of Mohammed, a wife has duties, to which her husband
has no correlative obligations. She must do her duty or be thrust
out. There is no adultery for a man and no divorce for a woman.
The most complete negation of divorce is in Hindostan, where a
woman (perhaps a child of five or six), if married to a man, is
his only, for time and eternity, no matter what may happen. He is
hers until she dies, but then he can have another wife. Romulus
allowed divorce to the man, if the woman poisoned infants, drank
strong wine, falsified keys, or committed adultery.[1247] By a
law of Numa a man who had as many children as he wanted could
cede his wife, temporarily or finally, to another.[1248] These
laws seem to have been forgotten. If they ever really existed
they did not control early Roman society. By the later law a
sentence for crime which produced civil death set free the other
spouse. In the last century B.C. divorce became very easy and
customary. The mores gradually relaxed to allow it. Augustus
compelled the husband of Livia to divorce her because he wanted
her himself. She was about to become a mother.[1249] Cato the
younger gave his wife to his fr