Note 92: — XXIV.—MARRIAGE. (Wall-Case 53.)

(b) The actual ceremony of marriage consisted in the solemn clasping of hands (dextrarum iunctio), an action seen on the relief on the sepulchral chest (No. 640) placed in this Case. The inscription shows that the chest was dedicated by a freedman and imperial scribe named Vitalis to the memory of his wife Vernasia Cyclas. The ceremony is only shown in an abbreviated form on this chest, but it appears in more detail on a relief from a sarcophagus (No. 641; fig. 250). The husband and wife clasp hands, and between them stands the pronuba or matron-friend of the bride, placing a hand on the shoulder of each. On the left of the group stands a man, perhaps the bride's father. To left and right of this scene of everyday Roman life we have the mythological personages whose attendance at the wedding may be supposed to be of good augury—Mars, Victory and Fortune. The clasping of hands was followed by a sacrifice to Jupiter, and this closed the actual wedding ceremonies. The sacrifice is represented in the illustration (fig. 251) taken from a Roman sarcophagus.92 The bride, and bridegroom stand by the burning altar, upon which the latter pours a libation. Behind the pair stands Juno pronuba, the presiding goddess of the wedding rites. On the right a bull is being led up to sacrifice, and on the left stand Venus, Hymenaeus and the Graces.