Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 21:01:58 -0600
Subject: Latin Marriage Proposal
I need help. I would like to propose (in Latin) to the woman that I am going
to marry. I would like "Would you be my wife." I know that the Latin word
"uxor" means "wife" but I don't know the rest.
The most solemn form of Roman marriage/betrothal was that of confarreatio,
by which a man and woman, heads veiled, and seated on conjoined chairs or
benches which were covered with sheepskin, solemnized their union in the
presence of ten witnesses (five [a sacred number] from each of the two
families), consecrating it to Iupiter Farreus by, it is thought, sharing a
cake of spelt.
Hence I offer the following which is adapted from the definition given by
the Roman jurist, Gaius:
His in velleribus apud testes et familiares sedeamus et Iovi Farreo coram
farreo in manum conveniamus.
Translation:
Before witnesses and friends let us sit here on these sheepskins and let us,
in the presence of Iupiter Farreus, pledge our troth.
Of course I can't say that anyone ever used this formula. As I said, I
concocted it out of a Roman legal definition.
By the way, be careful with confarreatio. It was not to be entered into
casually. Dissolution of such a union was sticky, requiring a separate
diffarreatio.
In place of spelt cakes I would recommend cassatina siciliana, a Sicilian
ricotta cheese cream and almond paste-filled pastry shaped like a woman's
breast, glazed, and topped with a cherry.
Bob