Editing Concubinage (section)

== Antiquity ==
=== Mesopotamia ===
{{Expand section |date=September 2020}}
In [[Mesopotamia]], it was customary for a sterile wife to give her husband a slave as a concubine to bear children. The status of such concubines was ambiguous; they normally could not be sold but they remained the slave of the wife.<ref name=Orlando1>{{cite book |title=Slavery and Social Death |first1=Orlando |last1=Peterson |page=230 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|quote=Many societies in addition to those advocating Islam automatically freed the concubine, especially after she had had a child. About a third of all non-Islamic societies fall into this category.}}</ref> However, in the late Babylonian period, there are reports that concubines could be sold.<ref name=Orlando1/>
;Old Assyrian Period (20th–18th centuries BC)
In general, marriage was monogamous.{{efn|During the Old Assyrian Period, Assyrian marriages were generally monogamous. But if a merchant had two homes, one in Anatolia and another in Assyria, he was allowed to have a wife in each city.<ref name=CompanionToAssyria-85/>}} "If after two or three years of marriage the wife had not given birth to any children, the husband was allowed to buy a slave (who could also be chosen by the wife) in order to produce heirs. This woman, however, remained a slave and never gained the status of a second wife."<ref name=CompanionToAssyria-85>{{citation |title=A Companion to Assyria |editor-first1=Eckart |editor-last1=Frahm |author-first1=Cécile |author-last1=Michel |page=85 |chapter=Chapter 4. Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Old Assyrian Period |isbn=978-1444335934 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=2017}}</ref>
;Middle Assyrian Period (14th–11th centuries BC)
In the Middle Assyrian Period, the main wife (''assatu'') wore a veil in the street, as could a concubine (''esirtu'') if she were accompanying the main wife, or if she were married.<ref name=CompanionToAssyria-157>{{citation |title=A Companion to Assyria |editor-first1=Eckart |editor-last1=Frahm |author-first1=Stefan |author-last1=Jacob |pages=157–58 |chapter=Chapter 7. Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Middle Assyrian Period |isbn=978-1444335934 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=2017}}</ref><ref name=CompanionToAssyria-412>{{citation |title=A Companion to Assyria |editor-first1=Eckart |editor-last1=Frahm |author-first1=Frederick Mario |author-last1=Fales |pages=412–13 |chapter=Chapter 22. Assyrian Legal Traditions |isbn=978-1444335934 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=2017}}</ref> "If a man veils his concubine in public, by declaring 'she is my wife,' this woman shall be his wife."<ref name=CompanionToAssyria-157/> It was illegal for unmarried women, prostitutes and slave women to wear a veil in the street.<ref name=CompanionToAssyria-157/> "The children of a concubine were lower in rank than the descendants of a wife, but they could inherit if the marriage of the latter remained childless."<ref name=CompanionToAssyria-157/>

=== Ancient Egypt ===
[[File:Concubine-IMG 6346.jpg|thumb|[[Ushabti]] of a concubine, naked with jewelry underlying the breasts, pubis shaved with visible vulva, and wearing a heavy wig with erotic implications (painted wood, 2050–1710 BC)]]
While most [[Ancient Egyptians]] were [[Monogamy|monogamous]], a male [[pharaoh]] would have had other, lesser wives and [[concubine]]s in addition to the [[Great Royal Wife]]. This arrangement would allow the pharaoh to enter into diplomatic marriages with the daughters of allies, as was the custom of ancient kings.<ref>Shaw, Garry J. ''The Pharaoh, Life at Court and on Campaign'', Thames and Hudson, 2012, p. 48, 91–94.</ref> Concubinage was a common occupation for women in ancient Egypt, especially for talented women. A request for forty concubines by [[Amenhotep III]] (c. 1386–1353 BC) to a man named [[Milkilu]], Prince of Gezer states:<blockquote>"Behold, I have sent you Hanya, the commissioner of the archers, with merchandise in order to have beautiful concubines, i.e. weavers. Silver, gold, garments, all sort of precious stones, chairs of ebony, as well as all good things, worth 160 deben. In total: forty concubines—the price of every concubine is forty of silver. Therefore, send very beautiful concubines without blemish." – ''(Lewis, 146)''<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/623/women-in-ancient-egypt/ |title=Women in Ancient Egypt|website=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |access-date=2020-03-17}}</ref></blockquote>Concubines would be kept in the pharaoh's [[harem]]. Amenhotep III kept his concubines in his palace at [[Malkata]], which was one of the most opulent in the history of Egypt. The king was considered to be deserving of many women as long as he cared for his Great Royal Wife as well.<ref name=":3" />

=== Ancient Greece ===
{{main|Pallake}}
{{see also|Hetaira}}

[[File:Antakya Archaeological Museum Menander plays Perikeiromene in 2019 01.jpg|thumb|Mosaic (3rd century AD) depicting Glykera (left), the ''pallake'' of Polemon (center), and a household slave named Sosias (right) in a scene from the play ''[[Perikeiromene]]'' by [[Menander]], first performed around 313 BC]]

In [[Ancient Greece]], the practice of keeping a concubine ({{langx|grc|παλλακίς}} ''pallakís'') was common among the upper classes, and they were for the most part women who were slaves or foreigners, but occasional free born based on family arrangements (typically from poor families).<ref name="BlundellBlundell1995">{{cite book |first1=Sue |last1=Blundell |first2=Susan |last2=Blundell |title=Women in Ancient Greece |url=https://archive.org/details/womeninancientgr0000blun|url-access=registration|year=1995 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-95473-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/womeninancientgr0000blun/page/124 124]–}}</ref> Children produced by slaves remained slaves and those by non-slave concubines varied over time; sometimes they had the possibility of citizenship.<ref name="Wilson2006">{{cite book |first1=Nigel Guy |last1=Wilson |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-aFtPdh6-2QC&pg=PA158|year=2006 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-97334-2 |pages=158–}}</ref> The law prescribed that a man could kill another man caught attempting a relationship with his concubine.<ref name="Davidson">{{cite book | first1=James |last1=Davidson | title=Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596 | url-access=registration |page= [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596/page/98 98] | isbn=0-312-18559-6 | year=1998 |publisher=Macmillan }}</ref>

By the mid fourth century, concubines could inherit property, but, like wives, they were treated as sexual property.<ref name="MacLachlan2012">{{cite book |first1=Bonnie |last1=MacLachlan |title=Women in Ancient Greece: A Sourcebook |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vlsJBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT74 |date=31 May 2012 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4411-0964-4 |pages=74–}}</ref> While references to the sexual exploitation of maidservants appear in literature, it was considered disgraceful for a man to keep such women under the same roof as his wife.<ref>{{cite book |first1=James |last1=Davidson | title=Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596 | url-access=registration | pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596/page/98 98–99] | isbn=0-312-18559-6 | year=1998 |publisher=Macmillan }}</ref> [[Apollodorus of Acharnae]] said that ''[[Hetaira|hetaera]]'' were concubines when they had a permanent relationship with a single man, but nonetheless used the two terms interchangeably.<ref>{{cite book | first1=James |last1=Davidson | title=Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596 | url-access=registration | page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312185596/page/101 101] | isbn=0-312-18559-6 | year=1998 |publisher=Macmillan }}</ref>

=== Ancient Rome ===
{{main|Concubinatus}}
{{See also|Marriage in ancient Rome|Contubernium}}

[[File:Epigrafe funebre per m. vennius rufus, padre, madre, moglie e concubina, da Telese, inv. 3008.jpg|thumb|The ''concubina'' Fufia Chila is included in this family gravestone set up by Marcus Vennius Rufus to commemorate himself, his father and mother, and his late wife (''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]'' IX 2265)]]
''[[Concubinatus]]'' was a monogamous union recognized socially and to some extent legally as an alternative to [[marriage in ancient Rome|marriage]] in the [[Roman Empire]].{{sfn|Treggiari|1981|p=58}} Concubinage was practiced most often in couples when one partner, almost always the man, belonged to a higher social rank, especially the [[Roman senator|senatorial order]], who were penalized for marrying below their class.{{sfn|Treggiari|1981|p=59}} The female partner was a ''concubina''; the term ''[[concubinus]]'' is used of men mainly in a same-sex union or to deprecate a relationship in which the woman was dominant.{{sfn|Gellérfi|2020|pp=89–100, especially pp. 98–99}}

The use of the term ''concubina'' in epitaphs for family memorials indicates that the role was socially acceptable.{{sfn|Kiefer|2012|p=50}} A man was not allowed to have both a ''concubina'' and a wife ''(uxor)'' at the same time, but a single tombstone might list multiple wives or ''concubinae'' serially.{{sfn|Treggiari|1981|pp=69–70, citing ''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]'' VI 1906}} By contrast, the pejorative ''[[paelex]]'' referred to a concubine who was a sexual rival to a wife—in early Rome, most often a [[Slavery in ancient Rome#War captives|war captive]] and hence unwillingly—and by [[late antiquity]] was loosely equivalent to "[[prostitution in ancient Rome|prostitute]]". However, in Latin literature ''concubinae'' are often disparaged as [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Master-slave relations|slaves kept as sexual luxuries]] in the literal sense of "bedmate".{{sfn|Williams|2006|pp=413–414}} The distinction is that the use of an enslaved woman was not ''concubinatus'' in the legal sense, which might involve a [[Concubinatus#Testatio|signed document]], though even an informal concubine had some legal protections that placed her among the more privileged slaves of the household.{{sfn|McGinn|1991|pp=359–366}}

Concubines occupied an entire chapter, now fragmentary, in the 6th-century compilation of Roman law known as the ''[[Digest (Roman law)|Digest]]'', but ''concubinatus'' was never a fully realized legal institution.{{sfn|Treggiari|1981b|p=60}} It evolved in ad hoc response to [[Lex Julia#Augustus' moral legislation (18–17 BC)|Augustan moral legislation]] that criminalized some forms of adultery and other consensual sexual behaviors among freeborn people ''([[ingenui]])'' outside marriage.{{sfn|McGinn|1991|p=333–375}} Even Roman legal experts had trouble parsing the various forms of marriage, the status of a ''concubina'', and whether an extramarital sexual relationship was adultery or permissible pleasure-seeking with a prostitute, [[Infamia#The infames|professional entertainer]], or [[Slavery in ancient Rome#Sexual ethics and attitudes|slave]].{{sfn|Treggiari|1981b|p=71–74}}

Roman emperors not infrequently took a ''concubina'', often a freedwoman, rather than remarrying after the death of their wife to avoid the legal complications pertaining to [[Inheritance law in ancient Rome|succession and inheritance]]. [[Caenis]], the freedwoman and secretary of [[Antonia Minor]], was [[Vespasian]]'s wife "in all but name", according to [[Suetonius]], until her death in AD 74.{{sfn|Rawson|1974|p=288, especially n. 30}} [[Slavery in ancient Rome#Manumission|Roman manumission law]] also allowed a slave-owner to free the slave and enter into ''concubinatus'' or a [[Marriage in ancient Rome|regular marriage]].{{sfn|Treggiari|1981|p=53}} Epitaphs indicate that both partners in ''concubinatus'' might also be freedpersons,{{sfn|Rawson|1974|p=289}} for reasons that are not entirely clear.{{sfn|Sandon|Scalso|2020|p=154 ''et passim''}}

A slave lacked the [[legal personhood]] to [[Slavery in ancient Rome#Marriage and family|marry under Roman law]] or to contract ''concubinatus'', but the heterosexual union of two slaves, or a [[Ancient Roman freedmen|freedperson]] and a slave, might be recognized as an intention to marry when both partners gained the legal status that permitted them to do so. In this quasi-marital union, called ''[[contubernium]]'', children seem often to have been desired, in contrast to [[Concubinatus#Children|''concubinatus'', in which children]] more often were viewed as complications{{sfn|Rawson|1974|p=291, especially n. 44}} and there was no intention to marry.{{sfn|Treggiari|1981|p=58, noting that intention ''(affectio maritalis)'', though at times hard to determine, was the basis of a valid marriage}}