honors of a wife, above the infamy of a prostitute, was acknowledged
and approved by the laws: from the age of Augustus to the tenth century,
the use of this secondary marriage prevailed both in the West and East;
and the humble virtues of a concubine were often preferred to the pomp
and insolence of a noble matron. In this connection the two Antonines,
the best of princes and of men, enjoyed the comforts of domestic love;
the example was imitated by many citizens impatient of celibacy, but
regardful of their families. If at any time they desired to legitimate
their natural children, the conversion was instantly performed by the
celebration of their nuptials with a partner whose fruitfulness and
fidelity they had already tried.[31] By this epithet of _natural_, the
offspring of the concubine were distinguished from the spurious brood
of adultery, prostitution, and incest, to whom Justinian reluctantly
grants the necessary aliments of life; and these natural children alone
were capable of succeeding to a sixth part of the inheritance of their
reputed father. According to the rigor of law, bastards were entitled to
the name and condition of their mother, from whom they might derive the
character of a slave, a stranger, or a citizen. The outcasts of every
family were adopted without reproach as the children of the State.

The relation of guardian and ward, or in Roman words of _tutor_ and
_pupil_, which covers so many titles of the _Institutes_ and _Pandects_,
is of a very simple and uniform nature. The person and property of an
orphan must always be trusted to the custody of some discreet friend. If
the deceased father had not signified his choice, the _agnats_, or
paternal kindred of the nearest degree, were compelled to act as the
natural guardians: the Athenians were apprehensive of exposing the
infant to the power of those most interested in his death; but an axiom
of Roman jurisprudence has pronounced that the charge of tutelage should
constantly attend the emolument of succession. If the choice of the
father and the line of consanguinity afforded no efficient guardian, the
failure was supplied by the nomination of the praetor of the city or the
president of the province. But the person whom they named to this
_public_ office might be legally excused by insanity or blindness, by
ignorance or inability, by previous enmity or adverse interest, by the
number of children or guardianships with which he was already burdened