Some privileges might be exercised by an outlying freeman without changing his relation to his native country; but of others he could not avail himself without becoming a citizen of the pale: and these were determined not by the higher dignity of the privilege, but by the nature of the case. Without quitting Capua Pacuvius Calavius had wedded a Claudia, and had given his daughter in marriage to a Roman: this bred no confusion: but if he had purchased Roman lands subject to the land-tax, the republic would have lost the tribute due upon them, which was assest not on the objects, but on the persons liable to it. Thus the higher right, the connubium, was open to every isopolite; the commercium was reserved for those who settled in their adopted country.

It is mentioned as one feature in the relation between Rome and Alba, that the connubium subsisted between them: and however all pretended statements concerning the earliest times may be rejected, perhaps with needless rigour, this at all events was meant to explain the origin of the same right among the Latins, and therefore deserves attention. The right of intermarriage with Alba is exprest in the legend of the mothers of the Horatii and Curiatii; that with the Priscans and Latins, in the story of the matrons who before the battle of Regillus were allowed to part from their husbands; and on such matters tradition cannot deviate from the truth: the marriage of the last king's daughter with the dictator Mamilius may certainly pass for a historical fact.