“Almost alone among barbarians, [the Germans] are content with one wife, except

—“Almost alone among barbarians, [the Germans] are content with one wife, except a very few among them, and these not from sensuality, but because their noble birth procures for them many offers of alliance. Lest the woman should think herself to stand apart from aspirations after noble deeds and from the perils of war, she is reminded by the ceremony which inaugurates marriage that she is her husband’s partner in toil and danger, destined to suffer and to dare with him alike both in peace and in war. The yoked oxen, the harnessed steed, the gift of arms, proclaim this fact.”—