Note 169 — FIRST SECTION.

The law was in the first instance made only with a view to the future, in order to ensure the state a sufficiently large number of citizens; Sozomenes, Histor. Eccles., I. 9., Vetus lex fuit apud Romanos, quae vetabat coelibes ab anno aetatis quinto et vigesimo pari iure essent cum maritis.—Tulerant hanc legem veteres Romani, cum sperarent, futurum hac ratione, ut urbs Roma et reliquae provinciae imperii Romani hominum multitudine abundarent. (There was an old law among the Romans, which forbad bachelors after the age of 25 to enjoy equal political rights with married men.—The old Romans had passed this law in the hopes that in this way the city of Rome, and the provinces of the Roman empire as well, might be ensured an abundant population). For the same reason Caesar, after the African War when the city was much depopulated through the great number of the slain, established prizes for such citizens as had the most children).—Dio Cassius, Bk. XLIII. 226.—All this availed little. The Censors Camillus and Posthumius were soon obliged to introduce a tax on celibacy,—the “old-bachelors’ tax” (Aes uxorium).—Festus, p. 161., L. Valerius Maximus, bk. II. ch. 9.—Augustus endeavoured in vain by the Lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus (Julian Law concerning marriage in the different classes) to counteract the tendency; till the Lex Papia Poppaea originating with the Senate (B.C. 9.) was ratified; (Tacitus, Annal. III. 25.—Dio Cassius, (LIV. 16., LVI. 10.), though even this did not long remain in force. Comp. Lipsius, Excurs. ad Tacit. Annal. III. 25.—Heineccius, Antiquit. Roman. Jurispr. (Antiquities of Roman Law), I. 25. 6. p. 209.—Hugo, “Geschichte des römischen Rechts,” (History of Roman Law), I. p. 237., II. p. 861.