The Roman law gave the liberty of
making presents before marriage; after the marriage they were not
allowed. This was founded on the manners of the Romans, who were led to
marriage only by frugality, simplicity, and modesty; but might suffer
themselves to be seduced by domestic cares, by complacency, and the
constant tenor of conjugal felicity.
A law of the Visigoths
[32]
forbade the man giving more to the woman
he was to marry than the tenth part of his substance, and his giving her
anything during the first year of their marriage. This also took its
rise from the manners of the country. The legislators were willing to
put a stop to that Spanish ostentation which only led them to display an
excessive liberality in acts of magnificence.
The Romans by their laws put a stop to some of the inconveniences
which arose from the most durable empire in the world — that of virtue;
the Spaniards, by theirs, would prevent the bad effects of a tyranny the
most frail and transitory — that of beauty.
