uces pueris,' as you will soon be saying yourself on a certain occasion.
Your next business is to consider what kind of a marriage you propose. I
suppose the Roman, but there is great room for choice even there."

It is a proverb how different things are in theory and when reduced to
practice. Agellius had thought of the end more than of the means, and had
had a vision of Callista as a Christian, when the question of rites and
forms would have been answered by the decision of the Church without his
trouble. He _was_ somewhat sobered by the question, though in a different
way from what his uncle wished and intended.

Jucundus proceeded--"First, there is _matrimonium confarreationis_. You
have nothing to do with that: strictly speaking, it is obsolete; it went
out with the exclusiveness of the old patricians. I say 'strictly
speaking'; for the ceremonies remain, waiving the formal religious rite.
Well, my dear Agellius, I don't recommend this ceremonial to you. You'd
have to kill a porker, to take out the entrails, to put away the gall, and
to present it to Juno Pronuba. And there's fire, too, and water, and
frankincense, and a great deal of the same kind, which I think
undesirable, and you would too; for there, I am sure, we are agreed. We
put this aside then, the religious marriage. Next comes the marriage _ex
coemptione_, a sort of mercantile transaction. In this case the parties
buy each other, and become each other's property. Well, every man to his
taste; but for me, I don't like to be bought and sold. I like to be my own
master, and am suspicious of anything irrevocable. Why should you commit
yourself (do you see?) for ever, _for ever_, to a girl you know so little
of? Don't look surprised: it's common sense. It's very well to buy _her_;
but to be bought, that's quite another matter. And I don't know that you
can. Being a Roman citizen yourself, you can only make a marriage with a
citizen; now the question is whether Callista is a citizen at all. I know
perfectly well the sweeping measure some years back of Caracalla, which
made all freemen citizens of Rome, whatever might be their country; but
that measure has never been carried out in fact. You'd have very great
difficulty with the law and the customs of the country; and then, after
all, if the world were willing to gratify you, where's your proof she is a
freewoman? My dear boy, I must speak out for your good, though you're
offended with me. I wish you to have he