For those who love mythology as much as I do here are a peek at some interesting customs practiced by the Romans.  

A. Childhood

• Contraception, abortion, infanticide were legal and common practices
• Immediately after birth, the child was placed on the ground and the father “raised” him from the earth. Else, the child was exposed out of the house in a public place
• Seneca approved “What is good must be set apart from what is good for nothing”
• In the eastern provinces, peasants divided their offspring. (economic)
• This was called being “stark naked”
• Bastards took their mother’s name
• Adoptions and the social advancement of freed slaves compensated for the low rate of natural reproduction
• The wet-nurse supplanted breast-feeding by the natural mother
• In addition, the pedagogue took care of education
• This formed a surrogate family for the child, normally under the eye of an older relative
• Boys and girls were educated together upto the age of twelve
• After twelve, only boys were educated
• At twelve, a girl was considered nubile
• At fourteen, a girl was considered an adult
• The Roman quarter for ‘mischief’ was Suburra
• Sexual morality as in restricting sex to marriage alone only took hold in the second century A.D.
• This also brought with it a new concept – majority
• Strangely, every male Roman child, major or minor, married or not, remained under the authority of his father and did not become a Roman until his father’s death. Even income was controlled by the father
• The symbol of social dignity was the will. It was a disgrace to die intestate

B. Marriage

• Slaves could not marry until the 3rd century A.D. They were believed to live in sexual promiscuity
• Roman marriage was a private act, did not require any public authority or sanction
• No written marriage contract was necessary, except a dowry contract
• Divorce was as informal as marriage, for women as well as men
• The wedding night took the form of a legal rape, in which the woman emerged “offended with her husband”
• The groom would not deflower, but sodomize the wife on her wedding night
• The same custom existed in China.