265 | On Dextrarum Iunctio In Roman law the joining of hands is a mandatory gesture for making a contract binding, the law speaking of fides manualis . 1 The convenient expression dextrarum iunctio is not classical . The symbolic gesture may be described by Lucan : “iunguntur taciti” ( 2 : 371 ) . 2 The use of the root ungo, primarily to yoke on harness, and in a secondary sense to connect, reminds us of the words pronounced by the bride at the wedding ceremony, “Ubi tu Caius ego Caia”, or according to an older pronunciation “Ubi tu Gaius ego Gaia” ( Plutarch, Quaest . Rom . XXX ; Valerius Maximus X ; Cicero, Pro Murena XII, 27 ) . Briffaut, in his Mothers : AStudy of the Origins of Sentiments and Institutions, Vol . 3, New York 1927, p . 247, writes : The name Caius, which was so common among the Romans, means ‘bull,’ and its feminine form means ‘cow . ’ The Sanskrit root from which the words are derived is ‘gau,’ which means ‘cow,’ and the English word, as also the word ‘calf,’ are d...
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