14
COMING OF AGE
TEEN LIFE
Most marriages occurred through an arrangement. Most Roman parents would plan a marriage for their children. Male teenagers would usually marry someone much younger than him while female teenagers would most likely already have been married for several years since she was a child. While works like Pyramus and Thisbe give us an unrepresentative view of romance during ancient times, most people between the ages of thirteen and eighteen would be involved in an arranged marriage. Such things like “young love” were not as long-lasting as many young men and women were not allowed to choose their own partners. Ladies were especially powerless in this realm as most were forced into marriage with much older men; some married even before they were teenagers!
Girls were expected to remain virgins until marriaged. They were deemed "suitable" for marriage once they were twelve years old. It was scandalous for a girl to lose her virginity before marriage, and she became less desirable in the eyes of suitors. Boys, however, officially entered into manhood at around the ages of fifteen. Wealthy young men would often have relations with slave-girls in their households; commoners who could not afford as many slaves visited prostitution houses instead. Upon reaching that age, teenage boys removed their bulla, an amulet that the Romans believed would protect them from evil spirits. Boys would trade in their toga praetexta for the toga virilis which would prove their entry to manhood.
Marcus Aurelius as a teenager. As the heir to the throne, Marcus Aurelius enjoyed a relatively lofty lifestyle even as a young man. His family was a very prominent household in Rome even before his reign.
ROMAN