Note 185 — XVI MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE UNDER ROMAN AND ENGLISH LAW
Reading edition
‘Si sine uxore, Quirites, possemus esse, omnes ea molestia careremus, sed quoniam ita natura tradidit ut neque cum illis commode nec sine illis ullo modo vivi possit, saluti perpetuae potius quam brevi voluptati consulendum.’ Aul. Gell. Noct. Att. i. 6: cf. Liv. Epit. Book lix, and Sueton. Vit. Aug. Augustus, according to Gellius and Suetonius, caused this speech, delivered a century before, to be read aloud in the Senate in support of his bill De Maritandis Ordinibus, as being one which might fitly have been made for their own times.