The following is an inscription from an epitaph in Rome, dating from the first century BC.

I was called while alive, Aurelia Philematium, a woman chaste and modest, unsoiled by the common crowd, faithful to her husband.

My husband, whom, alas, I have now left, was a fellow freedman. He was truly like a father to me. When I was seven years old he embraced me. Now I am forty and in the power of death.

Through my constant care, my husband flourished.

Inspired by this joyful day

Sing wedding songs

With your shrill voice

And shake the ground with your dancing,

And in your hand brandish a pine torch

For - as Venus

Once approached Paris

Now Junia approaches

Manlius; a good maiden

Will marry with good omens

Come forward, new bride.

Don't be afraid. Hear our words.

See! Our torches

Burn like golden hairs.

Come forward new bride…

As the clinging grapevine

Embraces the nearby tree.

So will you fold the new husband

In you embrace. But the day is waning.

Come forward, new bride…

Stranger, I have only a few words to say. Stop and read them. This is the unlovely tomb of a lovely woman. Her parents named her Claudia. She loved her husband with all her heart. She bore two sons; one of these she leaves here on earth, the other she has already placed under the earth. She was charming in speech, yet pleasant and proper in manner. She managed the household well. She spun wool. I have spoken. Go on your way.

The behaviour that Lucius Aurelius Hermia praises his wife for is similar to that which is promised in some modern marriage vows.

Lucius Aurelius Hermia, freedman of Lucius, a butcher on the Viminal.

She who preceded me in death was my one and only wife, chaste in body, with a loving spirit, she lived faithful to her faithful husband, always optimistic, even in bitter times, she never shirked her duties.

Our friend Macrinus has suffered a terrible blow: he has lost his wife, a woman of rare virtue, who would have been remarkable even in the good old days. He lived with her for thirty-nine years without a single quarrel or bitter word. With what respect she treated her husband! And thus, of course, she herself earned the greater respect. She brought together and combined in her own character many admirable qualities taken from various stages of life. Indeed Macrinus has this one great consolation: he was able to keep such a treasure for so long.

To the eternal memory of Blandina Martiola, a most faultless girl, who lived eighteen years, nine months, five days. Pompeius Catussa, a Sequanian citizen, a plasterer, dedicated this to his wife, who was incomparable and very kind to him, who lived with him for five years, six months, eighteen days without any shadow of a fault, this memorial which he has erected in his lifetime for himself and his wife and which he consecrated while it was still under construction. You who read this, go bathe in the baths of Apollo, as I used to do with my wife. I wish I still could.

Furia Spes, freedwoman of Sempronius Firmus, provided this memorial for her dearly beloved husband. When we were still boy and girl, we were bound by mutual love as soon as we met. I lived with him for too brief a time. We were separated by a cruel hand when we should have lived in happiness. I therefore beg, most sacred Manes, that you look after the loved one I have entrusted to you and that you be well disposed and very kind to him during the hours of the night, so that I may see him, and so that he, too, may wish to persuade fate to allow me to come to him, softly and soon.

These translations were taken from the book Shelton, Jo-Anne, As the Romans Did - A Sourcebook in Roman Social History (New York: Oxford University Press,1988)