The research starts from a law of Theodosius II (C. 5.17.8) which allows the divorce to the wives subjected to flogging by husbands, declaring that this coercive form is unworthy of a free person. The law proposed a significant number of legitimate reasons for divorce changing the closed situation, especially for women, imposed by the Emperor Constantine. The author investigates the spread in late antiquity of a conception of the submission of the wife,in relation to her husband, which in some texts, especially of Augustine, justifies or at least tolerates the use by the husband of bodily coercive forms, including flogging and sometimes praises and preaches the need and the opportunity of patience on the part of wives. In Bible texts that support Christian authors in this conception of the marital relationship the translation ofwhich indicate in the greek text the role of husbands withaccentuates the absolute power of the husband over the wife asunlike the greekdesignates the power of theon the slaves. Church fathers as Ambrose and John Chrysostom and indeed the Emperor Theodosius II express a thought contrary to this trend.