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[Rome] Did a Roman emperor ever actually ban marriage of soldiers, and if so, why?
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Dilettante is in Rome
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My daughter came home yesterday eager to tell me the 'true story of valentine's day' that she learned in grade 2. She explained that saint valentine was a real person who was martyred by the Roman emperor for marrying Christians, which was against the law. That didn't sound right at all so I went hunting on the internet, but all the sources that described this story that I could find were explicitly Christian, and referred to emperor Claudius - which doesn't make any sense to me.

Is this simply a myth, or is there something to this story, perhaps garbled?

Follow-up question that you're probably sick of hearing by now: how did saint valentine come to be associated with courtly love?

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6 years ago