Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Confarreatio

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CONFARREA'TIO. One of the three forms of contracting marriage in use amongst the Romans; believed to have been the most ancient, as it was the most solemn form, for it partook of the nature of a religious ceremony, whereas the other two were merely civil contracts. It was solemnised in the presence of ten witnesses, the high priest, and Flamen Dialis; was accompanied by prayers, and the sacrifice of a sheep, the skin of which was spread over the chairs on which the bride and bridegroom sat. The name obtained from a custom belonging to it of carrying a flour cake (far) before the bride as she returned from the wedding. (Arnob. iv. 140. Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 31. Aen. iv. 374. Plin. H. N. xviii. 3.) An ancient marble, representing this ceremony, is engraved and described by Bartoli (Admirand. pl. 58.), and by Lumisden (Antiquities of Rome, appendix iii.); but the figures are too numerous, and the details too minute, to bear a reduction adapted to these pages.