And in those gardens, gossip represented him
devising new forms of old vice. On the subject every doubt is
permissible, and even otherwise, morality then existed in but one
form, one which the entire nation observed, wholly, absolutely;
that form was patriotism. Chastity was expected of the vestal, but
of no one else. The matrons had certain traditions to maintain,
certain appearances to preserve, but otherwise morality was
unimagined and matrimony unpopular.
When matrimony occurred, divorce was its natural consequence.
Incompatibility was sufficient cause. Cicero, who has given it to
history that the best women counted the years not numerically, but
by their different husbands, obtained a divorce on the ground that
his wife did not idolize him.
Divorce was not obligatory. Matrimony was. According to a recent
law whoso at twenty-five was not married, whoso, divorced or
widowed, did not remarry, whoso, though married, was without
children, was regarded as a public enemy and declared incapable of
inheriting or of serving the state. To this law, one of Augustus'
stupidities which presently fell into disuse, only a technical
observance was paid. Men married just enough to gain a position or
inherit a legacy; next day they got a divorce. At the moment of
need a child was adopted; the moment passed, the child was
disowned. But if the law had little value, at least it shows the
condition of things.
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