Focusing on private life and legal structures in ancient Rome, Carla Fayer's work systematically analyzes the de facto and legal institutions of concubinage, divorce, and adultery. Combining legal Romanist scholarship with antiquarian and socio-cultural perspectives, the study examines juristic, literary, epigraphic, and papyrological sources to illustrate daily Roman domestic realities. The volume traces the status of the concubina and paelex from early and classical law—where informal unions lacked affectio maritalis—to Christian late antiquity and Justinianic legislation, which restricted extra-marital cohabitation and regulated natural children. Additionally, the text details the procedural evolution of divorce—from archaic repudium to Augustan formalization and postclassical restrictions—alongside the legal criminalization and penal consequences of adultery under the lex Iulia. Ultimately, this comprehensive volume offers a contextualized synthesis of Roman legal doctrine, social hierarchy, and marriage dissolution.