At the marriage feast,
an incident occurred which threw the whole company into confusion: A
little boy, roving from couch to couch among the guests, came at length to
that in which Livia (the bride) was lying by the side of Augustus, on
which he cried out aloud,--"Lady, what are you doing here? You are
mistaken--this is not your husband--he is there," (pointing to Tiberius,)
"go, go--rise, lady, and recline beside _him_."] For the first 400
years of Rome, not one divorce had been granted or asked, although the
statute which allowed of this indulgence had always been in force. But in
the age succeeding to the civil wars men and women "married," says one
author, "with a view to divorce, and divorced in order to marry. Many of
these changes happened within the year, especially if the lady had a large
fortune, which always went with her, and procured her choice of transient
husbands." And, "can one imagine," asks the same writer, "that the fair
one, who changed her husband every quarter, strictly kept her matrimonial
faith all the three months?" Thus the very fountain of all the "household
charities" and household virtues was polluted.
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