At Rome the husband was permitted
to lend his wife to another. Plutarch tells us this in express
terms.
[47]
We know that Cato lent his wife to Hortensius,
[48]
and Cato
was not a man to violate the laws of his country.
On the other hand, a husband who suffered his wife to be debauched,
who did not bring her to justice, or who took her again after her
condemnation was punished.
[49]
These laws seem to contradict each other,
and yet are not contradictory. The law which permitted a Roman to lend
his wife was visibly a Lacedæmonian institution, established with a view
of giving the republic children of a good species, if I may be allowed
the term; the other had in view the preservation of morals. The first
was a law of politics, the second a civil law.
