Concubinatus

A natural marriage, as contradistinguished from the justae nuptiae, or justum matrimonium, the civil marriage. The concubinatus was the only marriage which those who did not enjoy the jus connubii could contract. Although this natural marriage was authorized and regulated by law, yet it produced none of those important consequences which flowed from the civil marriage; nor was the wife entitled to the honorable appellation of mater-familias, but was designated by the name of concubina. After the exclusive and aristocratic rules relative to the connubium had been relaxed, the concubinatus fell into disrepute and the law permitting it was repealed by a constitution of the Emperor Leo, the Philosopher, in the year 886 of the Christian era.

See Pater-Familias.