BACHELOR, an unmarried man. The legislation of the Romans placed un married persons (caelibes) under certain disabilities, the chief of which were con tained in the Lex Julia et Papia Poppeea. The original Lex was simply called Julia, and was passed a.c. 18. (Dion Cassius, liv. 16.) The Lex Papia et Poppies, which was intended as an amend ment and supplement to the Lex Julia, was passed A.D. 9 ; and both these leges seem to have been considered as one, and they are often referred to under the title of the Lex Julia et Papia Poppea. One object of the Lex was to encourage marriage. An unmarried person (cae lebs), who was in other respects qualified to take a legacy, was incapacitated by this Lex, unless he or she married within one hundred days. (Ulpian, Fray. xvii. tit. 1.) The law was the same if the whole property (hereditas) was left to a caelebs. (Gains, ii. 111, 144, 286.) It was the opinion of the lawyers, that though a caelebs could not take directly under a testament, a caelebs could take by way of fidei commissum, or trust; but the Senatus consultnm Pegasianum, which was passed in the time of Vespasian, rendered a cae lebs equally incapable of taking anything by way of fidei commissum.(Gaius, A testamentary gift, which failed to take effect because the heres or legatee was a caelebs, was called Caducnm (and the word was applied to other cases also), something which failed or dropped. In the first instance, such a gift came to those among the heredes who had children; and if the heredes bad no children, it came to those of the legatees who had children. If there were no such claimants, the Cadncum came to the public treasury (aerarium). But by a constitution of the Emperor Antoninns Caracalla, the Cadncum came to the Fis cus or Imperial treasury, instead of the public treasury ; the rights of children and parents, however, were reserved. (Ulpian, Frag. xvii. tit) An unmarried man who had attained the age of sixty, and an unmarried woman who had at. tamed the age of fifty, were not subjected to the penalties of the Lex Julia et Papia Poppies as to celibacy, but a Senatus consultum Pernicianum (Persicianum), passed in the time of Tiberius, extended the penalties to unmarried persons of both sexes who were above sixty and fifty years old respectively, and it made them for ever subject to the incapacities. How ever, a Senatus-consultum Claudianum, passed in the time of Claudius, mitigated the severity of the Pernicianum, in case a man married above the age of sixty, provided he married a woman under fifty, for the Roman law considered a woman under fifty as still capable of procreation.
(Ulpian, Frag. xvi. tit ; Suetonius, Clau dius, C. 23.) The Lex Julia et Papia Poppaia also imposed incapacities on orbz, that is, married persons who had no children from the age of twenty-five to sixty for a man, and twenty to fifty for a woman. Childless persons who came within the terms of the Lex lost one half of any hereditas or legacy ; and what they could not take became Caducum. The Lex also gave direct advantages to persons who had children, which subject belongs to the head of MARRIAGE, as well as the history of its enactment. The original object of this Roman law was perhaps only to en courage marriage, but it was afterwards used as a means of raising revenue.
In the preceding exposition of the Lex Julia et Papia Popptea, it has been as sumed that the provisions above enume rated applied both to males and females. The word caelebs, indeed, seems to be applied only to males, and the Latin term for an unmarried woman is Video, which means any woman who has not a hus band. But the expression of Ulpian (xvi. tit. 3), " Qui intra sexagesimum vel quae intra quinquagesimum annum neutri legi (the Julia, or Papia Poppies) paruerit," &c., shows that the provisions applied both to males and females. The word caelebs would not be used in the enactments of the Lex, but the phrase would be " Qui Quaeve," &c. That the Lex applied to women also, appears from other evidence. (Cod. viii. tit. 57.) Under the Republic there were also pe nalties on celibacy, and legal induce ments to marriage, which are mentioned in the speech which Dion Cassius (lvi. 57) puts into the mouth of Augustus. The censors also are said to have had the power of imposing a penalty called Aes Uxorium, wife-money, on men who were unmarried. (Festus, v. orium.") It was always a part of the Roman policy to encourage the procreation of children ; the object of the English law imposing extraordi nary payments on bachelors, and re lieving to a certain extent married persons with children, was apparently to raise money, though a certain vague notion that marriage should be encouraged seems also to have occurred to the law maker. A constitution of Constantine (Cod. viii. fit. 58) relieved both = married men and women from the pe nalties imposed on caelibes and orbi, and placed them on the same footing as married persons. This change was made to favour the Christians, many of whom abstained from marriage from religious motives.