Same Sex Marriage (Debate Paper)

The marriage of an Athenian woman and man is hard to define exactly because there has not been an exact word translated that is equivalent to the word, “marriage.” The Athenians have words that translate as physical acts for a marriage for the sake of having a child, they also have words that translate as “cohabit” or “live together.” This leads to the conclusion that our traditional connotation of marriage as a bond is not the way it was in Athens. The reasons for a man and a woman to be joined in marriage were nor for love, as we would expect, it would be for profitable and more pragmatic reasons. Usually most beneficial to the male’s in the bride’s life. Since the women were not supposed to be unattended they are assumed to have accepted what was decided for them in terms of a husband. “…A husband normally addresses his wife as “woman.” The Greek word for woman, is

The Roman poet Sulpicia describes her love as “the kind that veiling will give me reputation more than showing my soul to someone,” meaning that it was personally fulfilling, not necessarily beneficial to her public image. (Sulpicia, Six Poems, 1, trans. Lee Pearcy) In a similar vein to this poem, modern ideas of marriage are generally based off of love and the mutual desire for a relationship; however, many Romans did not have the opportunity or the freedom to marry who they pleased. Marriage was generally about the production of an heir, as well as occasionally the acquisition of power. This concept was especially common in the upper classes, which upheld several rituals and traditions of a wedding and marriage in general - it is fairly important

as marriage. Those in favor of civil unions instead of marriage will tell you the two institutions

The Aeneid was written during the time of Augustus (27 BC), the first Emperor of Rome. After Caesar’s death in 44BC, Augustus had the immense task of bringing Rome back to her original stability and unity that had been shattered during the Civil Wars and decline of her Republic. In the establishment of this empire Augustus had legislation encouraging marriage and the birth of children. Thus it makes sense that Virgil’s The Aeneid promoted the theme of marriage in a beneficial light. In Book 12 Aeneas was fated to marry Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus of Latium. By marrying Lavinia Aeneas would be in alliance with Latinus, conquering Latium to further the founding of Rome. Aeneas explains this alliance with the following: “May both nations, undefeated, under equal laws, / march together toward an eternal pact of peace. / I shall bestow the gods and their sacred rites. / My father-in-law Latinus will retain his armies, / my father-in-law, his power, his rightful rule. / The men of Troy will erect a city for me— / Lavinia will give its walls her name.” This shows that through the alliance, not only would Aeneas rise in power and land, but it also describes the unity and peacefulness that would result from the alliance. Therefore, The Aeneid promoted political marriages due to the benefits and success that resulted from those marital alliances.

Roman culture has been one of the most important civilizations in world history and it became the model to follow for future nations. Due to its importance as a Republic and empire, many Roman historians documented the lives and experiences of Rome and the bravery of their rulers. The Roman Empire came to be because of its leaders and victories over other regions at that time, but what is not as widely documented was the lives of the individual who supported such brave men, their women. Roman society had various important roles for women to take, some were wealthy and influential and also there were the proletariat females. Important to females, and males as well, marriage was a symbolic procedure in Roman society.

Marriage has been defined differently throughout the centuries. Today Merriam-Webster defines marriage as, “the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law” (“Marriage”). Due to the recent Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and Transsexual or LGBT movement, Merriam-Webster also added a second line to the definition reading “The state of being

At first, it appears that Portia and Brutus have a combative marriage. The readers first meet Portia in Act II, scene I, page 11, line 242. She is up in the wee hours of the morning to confront Brutus about his odd behavior. The way Brutus reacts to Portia at first may seem hostile and discriminating; however, this is not the case. The reader can see that Brutus truly loved Portia as an equal to himself because Brutus is guarding his secret to protect Portia, and they’re relationship is much different from that of Caesar and Calpurnia’s.

#3 Since 1970, there have been numerous amount of lawsuits against cities, counties, and state for the denial of marriage. Throughout history, LGBT citizens have been denied their right to marry clearly due to being the same sex. According to ProCon.org, in 1970 in Minnesota two men, Baker and McConnell,

In today’s society, marriage is defined as a formal union between two people recognized by the law (“Marriage”). However, in Celtic society, marriages were much more flexible, not always monogamous, and maybe not always between the opposite sex. Compared to other countries at the time,such as Rome, marriage in Celtic society was distinctly different because Celtic women had more rights than the average women of the time period. Marriage in Celtic society was more or less, just combining the resources of both parties, whereas in Rome, women were just considered their husband’s property. In the beginning of The Tain, Ailill and Medb are talking about who has more land, livestock and other things that contribute to their overall wealth.

Augustus’s law did take social stigmatization and turned them into law. Before Augustus these marriages were looked down on but they were not illegal. After Augustus’s laws the marriage of freeborn Romans with prostitutes or a senator with a libertine were

In Roman society and eventually Germanic societies, concubines became common. Concubines are women who live with a man, but have a lower status than the man’s wife. This became more and more common as planned marriages became a means for the nobility to gain power by combining two families. To protect monogamous relationships, there were guidelines that kept the matrimonial bond pure and long lasting. Among these guidelines were punishments and consequences for committing

Marriage in Rome seemed to be an exclusive club. I mean men could only marry a certain kind of woman. “Freeborn men are forbidden to marry a prostitute, a procuress, a woman manumitted by a procurer or procuress, one caught in adultery, one convicted in a public action, or one who has been

Marriages were treated much differently in ancient Rome. Couples married normally for convenience among people in the same class. Men would also be much older, while the wives were still young enough to produce children. Often times marriage could be difficult, because divorce existed commonly in this era, but Pliny hopes his relationship will last. In the letter, he thinks that he has achieved a great marriage, when he discusses the qualities of the perfect wife, and how she performs tasks, which show her devotion to him.

The history of same sex marriage has been recorded since the beginning of civilization. Ancient Roman Empire accepted same-sex relations. A lot of the roman emperors were homosexuals. However,

The Romans had laws against foreign marriages and Cleopatra was nearly the epitome of everything non-Roman. Antony and Octavian had a complicated relationship, ending in Octavian defeating both him and Cleopatra. Antony knew that marrying Cleopatra before 32 BC was dangerous, as his wife, Octavia, was Octavian’s sister. Having two wives was illegal, but also abandoning a member of Octavian’s family, would have broken the relationship much quicker. There is no doubt about a relationship between Antony and Cleopatra; they had children together and presented themselves alongside one another. The coinage of the two can be seen as them presenting their marriage. On the other hand, it could simply mean that they had a political relationship more than a romantic relationship. For some, that would mean that they needed to marry each other. However, for the power that each person held, a marriage would not have been so heavily enforced. For people of the upper class, some rules dictated by society did not always apply to them. Modern and ancient ideals about marriage does not translate to every situation flawlessly. Ager’s main point is that there is no hard evidence for a marriage or a wedding, dubbing it a “phantom