Date: Jun 5, 2003 - 14:57
In fact, it is Aulus Gellius (IV.3) who provides the answer.
"In his book On Dowries, Servius Sulpicius Rufus [jurist, orator, and friend of Cicero] wrote that written agreements concerning a wife's property first appeared to be necessary when the nobleman Spurius Carvilius Ruga divorced his wife because she could not produce children as the result of a physical handicap. This was in the five hundred and twenty-third year after the founding of the city, when Marcus Atilius and Publius Valerius were consuls. It is said, however, that this man Carvilius greatly loved the wife whom he sent away, and esteemed her most dearly because of her moral character, but put adherence to his oath before his desire and his love, as he had been required to swear before the censors that he would take a wife for the purpose of producing children."In swearing that he took a wife for the purpose of bearing lawful children, Carvilius was obliged to divorce the women when he discovered that she was barren. Otherwise, he would be forsworn.
Next question, Casta!