Men's Age at Marriage and Its Consequences in the Roman Family

A GE AT FIRST MARRIAGE of men and women is a significant factor influencing the size and shape of families. In a classic article published two decades ago, J. Hajnal drew a broad historical distinction between eastern and western family forms based in part on characteristic marriage age: in western Europe men and women took a first spouse of much the same age relatively late (mid-twenties), while in areas of eastern Europe and the Balkans first marriage for both sexes usually occurred in the teens.1 Since publication of that article, the broad distinction has been refined, in particular with the addition of a Mediterranean type in which men tend to get married for the first time in their late twenties or thirties, a decade or so later than women.2 The typical ages at marriage have various implications for family size and form. Through a computer simulation devised by K. W. Wachter, E. A. Hammel, and P. Laslett, it was discovered that among the demographic variables household size was most sensitive to changes in age at first marriage.3 In regard to family form, the western marriage pattern is associated with the nuclear family, while the eastern pattern has been 4 found in areas where large, extended family households were common. Because of their influence on the shape of the basic social unit, the family, it is worth trying to identify typical ages at marriage in Roman society with as much accuracy as possible and to consider the family of the western Roman Empire in relation to the typology. For demographers female age at marriage is of chief interest because of its importance for fertility rates. For the historian of the Roman family and society, on the other hand, the usual age at marriage for men deserves close attention because of its consequences for the effects of patria