“No necklace and no coronel were there,

and no embroidered gowns; there was no girdle

that caught the eye more than the one who wore it.

No daughter’s birth brought fear unto her father,

For age and dowry then did not imbalance

to this side and to that-the proper measure” (lines 100-105)

The first half of this quote seems to be the opposite of what one would imagine Ancient Rome to be. I imagine glamor and grandeur especially from the wealthy citizens. With that being said, this time period sounds very modest and down to earth. Also, women were seen for who they were and not what they looked like or what they were wearing. I doubt that this part would be convincing to anyone during the Pilgrim’s day because it’s hard to imagine a day when women were treated as equals and didn’t dress up to show status. The second half of this quote caught my eye because initially, I believed that the speaker was before his time. I thought that Dante was making a point against dowries because they basically turned women into objects to be exchanged. However, it’s more likely that he was speaking about the increasing amount of dowries that families were giving to the grooms and their families because he mentions “balance.” I will assume that it was the richer families who were going above and beyond for the dowry. Before the Pilgrim’s time, no one was giving too much or too little. Also, there is something to be said about the father’s “fear.” Estates were meant to stay in the family and be inherited by the eldest son, who would raise their own families. I believe the regular people would have agreed with him. How could they marry off their daughters if the rich continued to give substantially more than they could afford? The rich not so much. Of course, after paying a certain amount, they were buying the loyalty of their wife’s suitor’s family. Dante may be trying to convince people to remember the ancient times when things were better. Everything was fair. It was acceptable to pay the dowry according to each family’s means and women had a good place in society.