Mutual purchase. One of the modes in which marriage was contracted among the Romans. The man and the woman delivered to each other a small piece of money. The man asked the woman whether she would become to him a matcrfamilias, (mistress of his family,) to which she replied that she would. In her turn she asked the man whether he would become to her a paterfamilias , (master of a family.) On his replying in the affirmative, she delivered her piece of money and herself into his hands, and so became his wife. Adams, Rom. Ant. 501
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
