AFFI´NES
AFFI´NES,
AFFI´NITAS, or
ADFI´NES, ADFI´NITAS. Affinitas is the term used in
Roman law to express the relationship of the husband to the
cognati of his wife, and of wife to the
cognati of her husband. The
cognati of the husband and of the wife are not
affines to one another.
Affinitas is created by and continues only during marriage, but its legal
consequences may come into operation after the termination of the marriage
on which it was founded. (Gaius, 1.63;
Frag. Vat. §
303.)
By mere betrothal a relationship was created which is treated to some extent
as equivalent to
affinitas. It is sometimes
described by that term. (
Dig. 38,
10,
6.1.)
Although
affines may be more or less nearly
connected, they are not, like
cognati,
distinguished by degrees (
gradus), but by
particular terms.
The father of a husband is the
socer of the
husband's wife, and the father of a wife is the
socer of the wife's husband; the term
socrus expresses the same affinity with respect to the husband's
and wife's mothers. A son's wife is
nurus or
daughter-in-law to the son's parents; a wife's husband is
gener or son-in-law to the wife's parents. Thus the
avus, avia--pater, mater--of the wife become by the
marriage respectively, the
socer magnus,
prosocrus, or
socrus magna--socer,
socrus--of the husband, who becomes with respect to them severally
progener and
gener.
In like manner, the corresponding ancestors of the husband respectively
assume the same names with respect to the son's wife, who becomes, with
respect to them,
pronurus and
nurus. The son and daughter of a husband or wife
born of a prior marriage are called
privignus
and
privigna, with respect to their step-father
or step-mother;
[p. 1.43]and with respect to such children
the step-father and step-mother are severally called
vitricus and
noverca. The
husband's brother becomes
levir with respect to the
wife, and his sister becomes
glos (the Greek
γάλως).
Affinity in the direct line was always impediment to marriage, but not
collateral (
Cic. de Div. 1.4.
6;
V. Max. 1.5.4). Marriage with a
brother's widow and with a wife's sister were prohibited by imperial
Constitutions (Cod. 5.5, ss. 5, 8, 9;
Dig. 38,
10,
4.3; Puchta,
§ 196).
[
G.L] [
E.A.W]
