(Lat. concubina, a concubine), the state of a man and woman cohabiting together as married persons without the sanction of a legal marriage. In a scriptural sense, it denotes the state of cohabiting lawfully with a wife of second rank, who enjoyed no other conjugal right but that of cohabitation, and whom the husband could repudiate and dismiss with a small present (Gen. xxi.) In like manner he could, by means of presents, exclude his children by her from the heritage (Gen. xxv.) Such were the concubines of Nabor, of Abraham, of Jacob, Eliphas, Gideon, Saul, David, Solomon, Caleb, Manasseh, Rehoboam, Abiah, and Belshazzar. To judge from the conjugal histories of Abraham and Jacob, the immediate cause of concubinage was the barrenness of the lawful wife, who in that case introduced her maid-servant to her husband, for the sake of having children. In process of time, however, concubinage appears to have degenerated into a regular custom among the Jews; and the institutions of Moses were directed to prevent excess and abuse in that respect.
The Roman law calls concubinage an allowed custom (licita consuetudo). When this expression occurs in the constitutions of the Christian emperors, it signifies what we now sometimes call a marriage of convenience. The concubinage tolerated among the Romans, in the time of the republic and of the heathen emperors, was that between persons not capable of contracting legal marriage. Concubinage between such persons they looked on as a kind of marriage, and even allowed it several privileges.
Concubinage is also used to signify a marriage with a woman of inferior condition, to whom the husband does not convey his rank. Dajos (Paratilla) observes, that the ancient laws allowed a man to espouse, under the title of concubine, certain persons who were esteemed unequal to him, on account of the want of some qualities requisite to sustain the full honour of marriage; and he adds, that though such concubinage was beneath marriage both as to dignity and civil rights, yet was concubine a reputable title, and very different from that of "mistress" among us. Also, that the concubine might be accused of adultery in the same manner as a wife.
This kind of concubinage is still in use in some countries, particularly in Germany, under the title of halb-ehe (half-marriage), or left-hand marriage, in allusion to the manner of its being contracted, namely, by the man giving the woman his left hand instead of the right. This is a real marriage, though without the usual solemnity; and the parties are both bound to each other for ever, though the female cannot bear the husband's name and title.
Du Cange observes, that one may gather from several passages in the epistles of the popes, that they ancienly allowed of such connections. The seventeenth canon of the first council of Toledo declares, that he who with a faithful wife keeps a concubine, is excommunicated; but that if the concubine serve him as a wife, so that he has only one woman, under the title of concubine, he shall not be rejected from communion.
It is certain the patriarchs had a great number of wives, and that these did not all hold the same rank; some being subaltern to the principal wife, or what may be termed concubines or half wives. Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines; and the emperor of China is said to have sometimes two or three thousand in his harem. Q. Curtius observes, that Darius was followed in his army by three hundred and sixty-five concubines, all in the equipage of queens.