The Roman roots of equal marriage
The Ancient Romans are the first society to develop a fixed hierarchy of marriage types while also banning polygamy. East Asian, Middle Eastern, Ancient Egyptian, and Norse societies all had a hierarchy of spousal types but in the context of polygamy, e.g. the first wife, second, third, and so on. An artifact of this remains in that in German there are …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Oxford Dawn to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.