A Roman girl with a reasonable dowry might expect to be married at any age from about 13 to 18.  The Italian of the south, like the Greek, ripens early.  The legal age was 12; on the other hand to be unmarried at 19 was to be distinctly an old maid.  In the northern provinces of the empire maturity was less early, whereas south of the Mediterranean it was even earlier.  The legal age for the bridegroom was that at which his father or guardian allowed him to put on the “toga of the man” and enter the Forum.  Thus theoretically a Roman youth might become a benedict when about sixteen, and Nero was only at that age when he married his first wife Octavia.  Generally speaking, however, if Marcia was as old as 16, Silius would hardly be under 26 or 27.

The marriage, as has been said already, would commonly be a matter of arrangement between families, sometimes effected by their own members, sometimes by an interested friend or some other go-between.  “You ask me,” writes Pliny to Mauricus, “to look out for a husband for your niece.  There is no need to look far, for I know a man who might seem to have been provided on purpose.  His name is Minicius.  He is well-connected, and comes from Brescia, which you know to be a good old-fashioned place retaining the simple and modest manners of the country.  He is a man of active energy and has held high public office.  In appearance he is a gentleman, well-built, and with a wholesome ruddy complexion.  His father has ample means, and though perhaps your family is not much concerned on that point, we have to remember that a man’s income is one of the first considerations in the eyes, not only of our social system, but of the law.”

A marriage of the full and regular type could only be contracted between free citizens.  There were varying degrees of the morganatic about all others, such as marriage with a foreigner or emancipated slave.  A non-Roman wife meant that the children were non-Roman.  A man of the senatorial order could not marry a freedwoman, if he wished to have the union recognised; also no complete marriage could be contracted with a person labouring under degradation publicly inflicted by the authorities or degraded ipso facto by certain occupations.  For this reason the actress on the “variety” stage could not aspire to become even an acknowledged Roman wife, much less a member of the order which more or less corresponded to our peerage.  Nor could a Roman marry a relative within certain prohibited degrees.  He might not, in fact, marry any woman whom he already possessed what was called “the right to kiss.”

We are, however, dealing with two persons entirely beyond exception, namely Quintus Silius Bassus and Marcia Sabina.  A match has been made between these parties, perhaps several years before the actual marriage can take place, and while the intended bride is a mere child of ten:  even the future groom may be but a boy.  When the go-between has done his or her work to the satisfaction of both families, there takes place a betrothal ceremony, of which the original purpose was, of course, to bind each party morally to carry out the contract, but which, by the year 64, might mean very little.