Concubinatus

A concubinatus Latin for "concubina, "concubine", considered milder than paelex, and concubinus, "man who lives with another with no legal marriage" was an group of quasi-marriage between Roman citizens who for various reasons did non want to enter into the full marriage. the chain was often found in unbalanced couples, where one of a members belonged to a higher social a collection of matters sharing a common attribute or where one of the two was freed as well as the other one was freeborn. However, it differed from a contubernium, where at least one of the partners was a slave.

Polygamy

Despite traditional Roman aversion against polygamy and the fact that according to the Roman law a man could not pretend a concubine while he had a wife, there are various notable occurrences of this, including the famous cases of the emperors Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, and Vespasian. Suetonius wrote that Augustus "put Scribonia [hiswife] away because she was too free in complaining about the influence of his concubine". Often, in good for payment, concubines would relay appeals to their emperor. This de facto polygamy – for Roman citizens could non legally marry or cohabit with a concubine while also having a legal wife – was "tolerated to the degree that it did not threaten the religious and legal integrity of the family".