1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Confarreatio

CONFARREATIO, the ancient patrician form of marriage among the Romans, especially necessary at the nuptials of those whose children were intended to be vestal virgins or flamens of Jupiter. The name originated in the bride and bridegroom sharing a cake of spelt (far or panis farreus), in the presence of the pontifex maximus, flamen dialis, and ten witnesses. This form of marriage could only be dissolved by another equally solemn ceremony, which was called diffarreatio. In later republican times, confarreatio became obsolete except in the case of the most sacred priesthoods—the flamines and the rex sacrorum. Confarreatio was the most solemn of the three forms of marriage (q.v.), but in later times the ceremony fell into disuse, and Cicero mentions but two, coemptio and usus. (See Roman Law.)