1Even so, marriages there are strict, nor would you praise any part of their customs more. 1For almost alone among barbarians they are content with one wife each, apart from a very few, who are courted with many marriages not from lust but on account of their nobility. 2The dowry is offered not by the wife to the husband but by the husband to the wife. 2Parents and relatives are present and approve the gifts, gifts not sought out for feminine delights nor for the new bride to adorn herself with, but oxen and a bridled horse and a shield with a framea and a sword. 3For these gifts the wife is received, and she in turn brings some weapon to her husband: this they consider the strongest bond, these the mysterious rites, these the gods of wedlock.
4Lest the woman should think herself outside thoughts of valour and outside the hazards of war, she is reminded by the very auspices of her marriage's beginning that she comes as a partner in toils and dangers, to suffer the same and dare the same in peace and in battle: this the yoked oxen, this the harnessed horse, this the gift of arms declare. 4So she must live, so she must bear children: she is receiving, she is told, what she must hand on to her children unprofaned and worthy, what her daughters-in-law may receive and pass on again to her grandchildren.