Note 255-3 — Chapter III

Genesis, 30, 23. In Sparta, willful bachelorhood was almost infamous. (Plutarch, Lycurg., 15.) In Athens, a person might be charged with agamy as with a crime. (Pollux, VIII, 40.) Concerning the ancient censorial punishments inflicted on those who had no children and the rewards of prolificacy, see Valer. Max., II, 9, 1; Livy, XLV, 15; Gellius, I, 6: V, 19. Festus v. Uxorium. Many German cities made marriage a qualification for the holding of certain public offices, etc. In some places, the public treasury was made the heir of bachelors, a custom not abolished in Hanover until 1732. Compare Ludewig, on the Hagestolziatu (1727), but also Selchow, Elem. Juris Germ., § 290. On the fines imposed on old bachelors in Spain, during the middle ages, see Gans, Erbrecht, III, 401 seq. Recently recommended very strongly by Hermes, Sophiens Reise (3 aufl.), I, 660.