On Mar 31, 2012 6:26 AM, "Aadisht Khanna" <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 29-03-2012 20:44, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > > > > Affluence is definitely a prime culprit - during the zenith of the > > Imperium Romanum there was a similar crisis when free Romans didn't > > want to marry, because it was a drag, orgies were much fun. Roman > > society had to introduce a variety of incentives to promote marriage > > and the family. The tax benefits handed to married couples in modern > > societies comes directly from those times. > > > > Cheeni, do you have a citation for this, please? I was under the > impression that income tax (and therefore any benefits or exemptions to > it) was a twentieth century invention. >
Lex Julia et Papia is your Google term. http://www.unrv.com/government/julianmarriage.php « 120. Men must marry. Rome, 131 B.C. (fr. 6 Malcovati. L) Speech of the censor Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus [16] about the law requiring men to marry in order to produce children. According to Livy (Per. 59), in 17 B.C. Augustus read out this speech, which seemed "written for the hour", in the Senate in support of his own legislation encouraging marriage and childbearing (see no. 121)."If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance; but since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way without them, [17] we must plan for our lasting preservation rather than for our temporary pleasure. 121. Prizes for marriage and having children. Rome, 1st cent. A.D. (Dio Cassius, History of Rome 54.16.1-1. Early 3rd cent. A.D. G) [Augustus] assessed heavier taxes on unmarried men and women without husbands, and by contrast offered awards for marriage and childbearing. And since there were more males than females among the nobility, he permitted anyone who wished (except for senators) to marry freedwomen, and decreed that children of such marriages be legitimate. »
