Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–50 ...

, ''diffarreatio'' (from Lat ''dif-'' + ''farreum'', a

spelt Spelt (''Triticum spelta''), also known as dinkel wheat or hulled wheat, is a species of wheat that has been cultivated since approximately 5000 BC. Spelt was an important staple food in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times. ...

-cake) was a form of divorce in which a cake was used. ''Diffarreatio'' was properly the dissolving of marriages contracted by ''

confarreatio In ancient Rome, ''confarreatio'' was a traditional patrician form of marriage. The ceremony involved the bride and bridegroom sharing a cake of emmer, in Latin ''far'' or ''panis farreus'', hence the rite's name. (''Far'' is often translated as " ...

'', which were those of the

pontifices A pontiff (from Latin ''pontifex'') was, in Roman antiquity, a member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs."Pontifex". "Oxford English Dictionary", March 2007 The term "pontiff" was la ...

Festus Festus may refer to: People Ancient world * Porcius Festus, Roman governor of Judea from approximately 58 to 62 AD *Sextus Pompeius Festus (later 2nd century), Roman grammarian *Festus (died 305), martyr along with Proculus of Pozzuoli *Festus ( ...

says it was performed with a wheaten cake and that it was called ''diffarreatio'' from ''far'', "wheat". Vigenère claims that ''confarreatio'' and ''diffarreatio'' are the same thing.

References

{{Reflist Ancient Roman religion Divorce Marriage in ancient Rome