Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
108.
_Why espoused not the Romans in mariage those women who were neere of kin unto them?_ WAS it because they were desirous to amplifie and encrease their alliances, and acquire more kinsfolke, by giving their daughters in mariage to others, and by taking to wife others than their owne kinred? Or for that they feared in such wedlock the jarres and quarrels of those who be of kin, which are able to extinguish and abolish even the verie lawes and rights of nature? Or else, seeing as they did, how women by reason of their weaknesse and infirmitie stand in need of many helpers, they would not have men to contract mariage, nor dwell in one house with those who were neere in blood to them, to the end, that if the husband should offer wrong and injurie to his wife, her kinsfolke might succour and assist her.
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