§80. After the omens had been pronounced favorable the bride and groom appeared in the atrium, the chief room, and the wedding began. This consisted of two parts:
1. The ceremony proper, varying according to the form used (_confarreatio_, _coemptio_, or _usus_), the essential part being the consent before witnesses.
2. The festivities, including the feast at the bride's home, the taking of the bride with a show of force from her mother's arms, the escort to her new home (the essential part), and her reception there.
[Illustration: FIGURE 14. A MARRIAGE SCENE]
§81. The confarreate ceremony began with the _dextrarum iunctio_. The bride and groom were brought together by the _pronuba_, a matron married to her first husband, and joined hands in the presence of ten witnesses representing the ten _gentes_ of the _curia_. These are shown on an ancient sarcophagus found at Naples (Fig. 14). Then followed the words of consent spoken by the bride: _Quando tu Gaius, ego Gaia_. The formula was unchanged, no matter what the names of the bride and groom, and goes back to a time when _Gaius_ was a _nomen_, not a _praenomen_ (§55). It implied that the bride was actually entering the _gens_ of the groom (§§23, 28, 35), and was probably chosen for its lucky meaning (§44). Even in marriages _sine conventione_ the old formula came to be used, its import having been lost in lapse of time. The bride and groom then took their places side by side at the left of the altar and facing it, sitting on stools covered with the pelt of the sheep slain for the sacrifice.
§82. A bloodless offering was then made to Jupiter by the _Pontifex Maximus_ and the _Flamen Dialis_, consisting of the cake of spelt (_farreum libum_) from which the _confarreatio_ got its name. With the offering to Jupiter a prayer was recited by the Flamen to Juno as the goddess of marriage, and to Tellus, Picumnus, and Pilumnus, deities of the country and its fruits. The utensils necessary for the offering were carried in a covered basket (_cumerus_) by a boy called _camillus_ (Fig. 15), whose parents must have both been living at the time (_patrimus et matrimus_). Then followed the congratulations, the guests using the word _feliciter_.