Note 87 — Chapter I · THE EARLIEST CONSTITUTION OF ROME

Modern writers are inclined to reject the appeal made to the sexus fragilitas by the Roman jurists, and to believe that the original motive lay in the desire to keep the property of the family together (cf. Czyhlarz Inst. p. 275); but, as this motive did not operate in the case of sons, it is difficult to see why it should have done so in the case of the wife or daughters, apart from a belief in the incapability of women to defend their own claims. For the motive underlying the tutela mulierum see p. 31.