[29] Why do they not allow the bride to cross the threshold of her home herself, but those who are escorting her lift her over?[68]
Is it because they carried off by force also the first Roman brides and bore them in in this manner, and the women did not enter of their own accord?
Or do they wish it to appear that it is under constraint and not of their own desire that they enter a dwelling where they are about to lose their virginity?
Or is it a token that the woman may not go forth of her own accord and abandon her home if she be not constrained, just as it was under constraint that she entered it? So likewise among us in Boeotia they burn the axle of the bridal carriage before the door, signifying that the bride must remain, since her means of departure has been destroyed.