isposing of it, and keeping merely
the income from it; we have also instances of women
reclaiming valuables of gold which their husbands had given
away without their authorisation, and also obtaining an
indemnity for the wrong they had suffered; also of their
lending money to the mother-in-law of their brother; in
fine, empowered to deal with their own property in every
respect like an ordinary proprietor.

If by his own act he divorced his wife, he not only lost all benefit
from her property, but he was obliged to make her an allowance or to pay
her an indemnity;* at his death, the widow succeeded to these, without
prejudice to what she was entitled to by her marriage contract or the
will of the deceased. The woman with a dowry, therefore, became more or
less emancipated by virtue of her money. As her departure deprived the
household of as much as, and sometimes more than, she had brought into
it, every care was taken that she should have no cause to retire from
it, and that no pretext should be given to her parents for her recall
to her old home; her wealth thus obtained for her the consideration and
fair treatment which the law had, at the outset, denied to her.

* The restitution of the dowry after divorce is ascertained,
as far as later times are concerned, from documents similar
to that published by Kohler-Peiser, in which we see the
second husband of a divorced wife claiming the dowry from
the first husband. The indemnity was fixed beforehand at six
silver minae, in the marriage contract published by Oppert.

When, however, the wife was poor, she had to bear without complaint the
whole burden of her inferior position. Her parents had no other resource
than to ask the highest possible price for her, according to the rank
in which they lived, or in virtue of the personal qualities she was
supposed to possess, and this amount, paid into their hands when they
delivered her over to the husband, formed, if not an actual dowry for
her, at least a provision for her in case of repudiation or widowhood:
she was not, however, any less the slave of her husband--a privileged
slave, it is true, and one whom he could not sell like his other
slaves,* but of whom he could easily rid himself when her first youth
was passed, or when she ceased to please him.**

* It appears, however, in certain cases not clearly
specified, that the husband could sell his