The Visigothic Code: Book III - Concerning Marriage

Title I: Concerning Nuptial Contracts

• Law I: Marriage requires a dowry.
• Law II: Roman women may marry Goths, and vice versa.
• Law III: Addresses if a girl marries against her father's will when already betrothed.
• Law IV: Nuptial contracts cannot be rescinded if a pledge gift is made.
• Law V: Prohibits marriages between elderly women and young men.
• Law VI: Specifies what property a dowry should include.
• Law VII: The father is responsible for managing his daughter's dowry.
• Law VIII: Upon a father's death, the mother manages the children's marriages.
• Law IX: Concerns delays by brothers in their sister's marriage or marrying below her station.
• Law X: Written dowry agreements cannot be contested.

Title II: Concerning Unlawful Marriages

• Law I: Women cannot remarry within a year of their husband's death.
• Law II: Freeborn women cannot marry slaves or their freedmen.
• Law III-IV: Discusses unlawful marriages involving slaves and freed individuals.
• Law V: Addresses marriages between slaves owned by different masters.
• Law VI: Prohibits second marriages in a husband's absence.
• Law VII: Concerns a master marrying a slave to a freewoman by falsely declaring him free.
• Law VIII: Freewomen need parental consent to marry.

Title III: Concerning the Rape of Virgins, or Widows

• Law I: A man cannot marry a woman he has forcibly taken if she was a virgin.
• Laws II-VII: Detail the removal of daughters from ravishers, parental consent issues, and prosecution time limits.
• Law VIII-XII: Address crimes involving slaves and forced marriages.

Title IV: Concerning Adultery

• Law I: Discusses the crime of adultery by women, with or without husband's knowledge.
• Law II-III: Addresses adultery in betrothed women and wives.
• Law IV-VI: Concerns the death penalty for adulterers and related legal rights.
• Law VII-IX: Discusses adultery involving freeborn women and consequences.
• Law X-XII: Slaves' involvement and torture for adultery revelations, and property consequences.
• Laws XIII-XVIII: Legal rights to accuse adultery, proof requirements, and issues involving priests.

Title V: Concerning Incest, Apostacy, and Pederasty

• Law I-II: Discuss incestuous and adulterous marriages, including holy virgins.
• Law III-V: Illegal religious dress, widow fraud, and pederasty.
• Law VI: Sodomy and enforcement.
• Law VII: Adultery with a family member's concubine.

Title VI: Concerning Divorce, and the Separation of Persons who have been Betrothed

• Law I: Discusses circumstances for lawful separation from a husband.
• Law II-III: Prohibits divorce among married and betrothed individuals.