Betrothed in Rome. There were few singles in Ancient Rome, but only for practical reasons
There were singles in Ancient Rome or everyone had to get married?
Despite substantial changes between one era and another, marriage was not always seen positively by the inhabitants of the Urbe , especially in the Archaic era.
Weddings, then, were more of a social duty than a free choice:it was, in practice, a nuisance.
Marriage of love was a rarity, as both sentiment and eroticism were almost always lacking.
Here is what the censor Metello Numidico wrote about it in 102 BC in the prayer De prole augenda :
"If we could, O Quiriti, live without a wife, we would all do without such a nuisance, but since nature has arranged things in such a way that one can neither live well enough with a woman, nor without her , we should think rather of lasting well-being than of a brief pleasure ”.
The passage is reported in the Noctes Atticae by the jurist Aulo Gellio (125-180 AD).
In short, there were few singles in Ancient Rome, but only by costume.