that meant loss
of citizenship.[89] Women convicted of adultery were, when not put to
death, punished by the loss of half their dowry, a third part of their
other goods, and relegation to an island; guilty men suffered the loss
of half of their possessions and similar relegation to an island; but
the guilty parties were never confined in the same place.[90] We have
mention also in several writers of some curious and vicious punishments
that might be inflicted on men guilty of adultery.[91]

Now, all this seems rigorous enough; but, as I have already remarked, we
must beware of imagining that a statute is enforced simply because it
stands in the code. As a matter of fact, public sentiment had grown so
humane in the first three centuries after Christ that it did not for a
moment tolerate that a father should kill his daughter, no matter how
guilty she was; and in all our records of that period no instance
occurs. As to husbands, we have repeated complaints in the literature of
the day that they had grown so complaisant towards erring wives that
they could not be induced to prosecute them.[92] A typical instance is
related by Pliny.[93] Pliny was summoned by the Emperor Trajan to attend
a council where, among other cases, that of a certain Gallitta was
discussed. She had married a military tribune and had committed adultery
with a common captain (_centurio_). Trajan sent the captain into exile.
The husband took no measures against his wife, but went on living with
her. Only by coercion was he finally induced to prosecute. Pliny informs
us that the guilty woman had to be condemned, even against the will of
her accuser.

A woman guilty of incest received no punishment, but the guilty man was
deported to an island.[94] If the incest involved adultery, the woman
was of course held on that charge.

[Sidenote: Divorce]

We come now to a matter where the growing freedom of women reached its
highest point--the matter of divorce. Here again we have to note the
progress of toleration and humanitarianism. In the early days of the
Republic the family tie was rarely severed. Valerius Maximus tells
us[95] of a quaint custom of the olden days, to the effect that
"whenever any quarrel arose between husband and wife, they would proceed
to the chapel of the goddess Viriplaca ["Reconciler of Husbands"], which
is on the Palatine, and there they would mutually express their
feelings; then, laying aside their anger, they returned home
reco