This book explores the practicalities, cultural assumptions, and affective possibilities of marriage during the later Republic and the Principate. It offers a fresh look at the interaction of law and reality within Roman marriage, and builds on the accumulation of legal scholarship in the field, as well as on the latest insights into Roman society. Treggiari demonstrates that marriage affected a Roman woman's social status, and that while the socio-legal effect on a man was far less striking, marriage did enable a man to father legitimate children, the main object of the institution. The study also addresses the influences on the choice of partner, behavioral norms, and motives for divorce.