Coemptio
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
Mutual purchase
One of the modes in which marriage was contracted among the Romans. The man and the woman delivered to each other a small piece of money. ‘The man asked the woman whether she would become to him a mat7familias, (mistress of his family,) to which she replied that she would. in her turn she asked the man whether he would become to her a paterfamilias, (master of a family.) On his replying in the affirmative, she delivered hor piece of money and herself into his hands, and so became his wife.
Adams, Rom. Ant. 501.