Coemptio

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 materfamilias, (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 her piece of money and herself into his hands, and bo became his wife.

Adams, Rom. Ant 501.