Divorce isn't how anyone imagines their marriage journey will end. Nevertheless, it is the outcome for more than 600,000 American couples per year. As anyone who has been through the painful process can attest, it is much more complicated than packing your bags and leaving, often requiring courts, lawyers, mediators and staggering amounts of cash. How long has the institution of divorce been around?

Origins of an idea

Divorce, like marriage , has been part of human society since antiquity. Certain Greek states "permitted both husband and wife to call for and effect a divorce," and later, "divorces became very common" in the latter stages of the Roman Empire, said the University of Chicago . Yet "throughout most of history there was a strong taboo against couples splitting up, in

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