§65. Much of this was class exaggeration, but it is true that at this early date the _gens_ was not so highly valued by the plebeians as by the patricians, and that the plebeians assigned to cognates certain duties and privileges that devolved upon the patrician _gentiles_. With, the _ius conubii_ many of these points of difference disappeared. New conditions were fixed for _iustae nuptiae_; _coemptio_ by a sort of compromise became the usual form of marriage when one of the parties was a plebeian; and the stigma disappeared from the word _matrimonium_. On the other hand patrician women learned to understand the advantages of a marriage _sine conventione_ and marriage with _manus_ gradually became less frequent, the taking of the auspices before the ceremony came to be considered a mere form, and marriage began to lose its sacramental character, and with these changes came later the laxness in the marital relation and the freedom of divorce that seemed in the time of Augustus to threaten the very life of the commonwealth.
§66. It is probable that by the time of Cicero marriage with _manus_ was uncommon, and consequently that _confarreatio_ and _coemptio_ had gone out of general use. To a limited extent, however, the former was retained until Christian times, because certain priestly offices (_flamines maiores_ and _reges sacrorum_) could be filled only by persons whose parents had been married by the confarreate ceremony, the one sacramental form, and who had themselves been married by the same form. But so great became the reluctance of women to submit to _manus_, that in order to fill even these few priestly offices it was found necessary under Tiberius to eliminate _manus_ from the confarreate ceremony.
§67. Nuptiae Iustae.--There were certain conditions that had to be satisfied before a legal marriage could be contracted even by citizens. It was required:
1. That the consent of both parties should be given, or of the _pater familias_ if one or both were _in potestate_. Under Augustus it was provided that the _pater familias_ should not withhold his consent unless he could show valid reasons for doing so.
2. That both parties should be _puberes_; there could be no marriage between children. Although no precise age was fixed by law, it is probable that fourteen and twelve were the lowest limit for the man and woman respectively.