Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

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

spelt Spelt (''Triticum spelta''), also known as dinkel wheat is a species of wheat. It is a relict crop, eaten in Central Europe and northern Spain. It is high in protein and may be considered a health food. Spelt was cultivated from the Neolit ...

-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, 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 "spelt", which i ...

'', which were those of the

pontifices In Roman antiquity, a pontiff () was a member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Religion in ancient Rome, Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs."Pontifex". "Oxford English Dictionary", March 2007 The term ''pontiff'' was ...

. 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