Quaestiones Romanae

Why do they, as they conduct the bride to her home, bid her say, Where you are Gaius, there am I Gaia [*](Ubi tu Gaius, ego Gaia.)?

Is her entrance into the house upon fixed terms, as it were, at once to share everything and to control jointly the household, and is the meaning, then, Wherever you are lord and master, there am I lady and mistress? These names are in common use also in other connexions, just as jurists speak of Gaius Seius and Lucius Titius,[*](John Doe and Richard Roe.) and philosophers of Dion and Theon.[*](Cf.Moralia, 1061 c.)

Or do they use these names because of Gaia Caecilia,[*](Probably not the same as Tanaquil, wife of Tarquinius Priscus; but Cf. Pliny, Natural History, viii. 48 (194).) consort of one of Tarquini sons, a fair and virtuous woman, whose statue in bronze stands in the temple of Sanctus?[*](We should probably emend to Sancus; the same mistake is made in the mss. of Propertius, iv. 9. 71-74, where see the excellent note of Barber and Butler.) And both her sandals and her spindle were, in ancient days, dedicated there as tokens of her love of home and of her industry respectively.

Why is the far-famed Talassio [*](The traditional Roman spelling seems to be with -ss-.) sung at the marriage ceremony?[*](Cf.Life of Romulus, xv. (26 c), Life of Pompey, iv. (620 f); Livy, i. 9. 12.)

Is it derived from talasia (spinning)? For they call the wool-basket (talaros) talasus. When they lead in the bride, they spread a fleece beneath her: she herself brings with her a distaff and her spindle, and wreaths her husband’s door with wool.

Or is the statement of the historians true? They relate that there was a certain young man, brilliant in military achievements and valuable in other wTays, whose name was Talasius: and when the Romans were carrying off the daughters of the Sabines who had come to see the games, a maiden of particularly beautiful appearance was being carried off for him by some plebeian retainers of his. To protect their enterprise and to prevent anyone from approaching and trying to wrest the maiden from them, they shouted continually that she was being brought as a wife for Talasius (Talasio). Since, therefore, everyone honoured Talasius, they followed along and provided escort, joining in the good wishes and acclamations. Wherefore since Talasius’s marriage was happy, they became accustomed to invoke Talasius in other marriages also, even as the Greeks invoke Hymen.