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Show Old Romans Regarded Kiss as Holy Symbol The Romans knew all there was to know about kisses. In the chaste days ot the republic, however, kisses were very solemn and holy, so much so that Cato, the censor, whose Ideas ran to the blue law variety, deprived a senator of office because he had kissed his wife in the presence of their daughter. When a couple were formally betrothed be-trothed the engagement was usually sealed with a kiss In the presence of the relatives. If one of the couple died before the wedding day the other had to return all the engagement presents pres-ents unless there had been this public betrothal kiss. It finally came to have such weight that it was regarded with nearly as much reverence as the marriage ceremony, and after a couple had kissed each other the engagement en-gagement could be broken only for the most serious reasons, nearly as erious as grounds for divorce. But in the latter days, under the empire, kisses became as common as breakfasts In Rome, and when a fashionable fash-ionable woman met a fashionable man It was quite the thing for him to kiss her. Among the wealthy classes It became the mode for men and women to put perfume on their lips before they went to a social gatheringExchange. |