<P> As a polygynous society, the Israelites did not have any laws that imposed marital fidelity on men . However, the prophet Malachi states that none should be faithless to the wife of his youth and that God hates divorce . Adulterous married women, adulterous betrothed women, and the men who slept with them however, were subject to the death penalty by the biblical laws against adultery According to the Priestly Code of the Book of Numbers, if a pregnant woman was suspected of adultery, she was to be subjected to the Ordeal of Bitter Water, a form of trial by ordeal, but one that took a miracle to convict . The literary prophets indicate that adultery was a frequent occurrence, despite their strong protests against it, and these legal strictnesses . </P> <P> In ancient Greece, no specific civil ceremony was required for the creation of a marriage--only mutual agreement and the fact that the couple must regard each other as husband and wife accordingly . Men usually married when they were in their 20s and women in their teens . It has been suggested that these ages made sense for the Greeks because men were generally done with military service or financially established by their late 20s, and marrying a teenage girl ensured ample time for her to bear children, as life expectancies were significantly lower . Married Greek women had few rights in ancient Greek society and were expected to take care of the house and children . Time was an important factor in Greek marriage . For example, there were superstitions that being married during a full moon was good luck and, according to Robert Flacelière, Greeks married in the winter . Inheritance was more important than feelings: a woman whose father dies without male heirs could be forced to marry her nearest male relative--even if she had to divorce her husband first . </P> <P> There were several types of marriages in ancient Roman society . The traditional ("conventional") form called conventio in manum required a ceremony with witnesses and was also dissolved with a ceremony . In this type of marriage, a woman lost her family rights of inheritance of her old family and gained them with her new one . She now was subject to the authority of her husband . There was the free marriage known as sine manu . In this arrangement, the wife remained a member of her original family; she stayed under the authority of her father, kept her family rights of inheritance with her old family and did not gain any with the new family . The minimum age of marriage for girls was 12 . </P> <P> Among ancient Germanic tribes, the bride and groom were roughly the same age and generally older than their Roman counterparts, at least according to Tacitus: </P>

What is the only recognized purpose of marriage