Il peculium femminile nella Casina di Plauto (v. 199)

The aim of this paper is to study the regime of the family estate during the Roman Republic era. Starting from the legal word peculium, it aims to clarify the nature of a marriage in the comedy Casina, by Plautus (vv. 165–215). There is a discussion about the freedom of women’s management of extra dotalia, and in particular about the slave Casina. On one hand, the matrona Myrrhina defends the traditional point of view, which gives the husband the entireproperty of the wife’s goods; on the other hand, Cleostrata defends her own autonomy and claims the right to her own peculium, because of her parapherna. After a brief reconstruction of the plot, I support the sine manu nature of this marriage, based both on the historical context and the influence of Hellenistic law.