Inancient Rome,confarreatio was a traditionalpatrician form ofmarriage.[1] The ceremony involved the bride and bridegroom sharing a cake ofemmer, inLatinfar orpanis farreus,[2][3] hence the rite's name.Far is often translated as "spelt", which is inaccurate as the grain used wasTriticum dicoccum (emmer), notTriticum spelta.[4] TheFlamen Dialis andpontifex maximus presided over thewedding, and ten witnesses had to be present.[3] The woman passed directly from the hand(manus) of her father or head of household (thepater familias) to that of her new husband.[5]
Having parents who were married byconfarreatio was a prerequisite for becoming aVestal or theFlamen Dialis.[3]Confarreatio seems to have been limited to those whose parents were also married byconfarreatio, but later, perhaps with the rise ofplebeiannobiles, this requirement must have been relaxed.[6]Scipio Africanus presumably married his wifeAemilia Tertia byconfarreatio, because their elder son was Flamen Dialis; yet Scipio's motherPomponia was a plebeian.
Divorce forconfarreatio marriages,diffarreatio,[3] was a difficult process and therefore rare. Not much is known about howdiffarreatio was carried out except that there was a special type of sacrifice that caused the dissolution of the relationship between the man and woman. She would then pass back into themanus of herpaterfamilias.
Originally, theconfarreatio was indissoluble, and this remained true of the marriage of the Flamen Dialis. The other twomajor flamines, theFlamen Martialis and theFlamen Quirinalis, were also required to marry byconfarreatio.[7] The three major flamines were also required to marry virgins; further, if the wife of the Flamen Dialis died, he was immediately required to resign. It is not clear if this was true of the other priests.