E. T. Merrill, Commentary on Catullus, Poem 61, line 166

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[166] omine cum bono: the custom of lifting the bride across the threshold is doubtless traceable to the original marriage by capture, as certain even of the ancients suggested, but its origin had been almost lost sight of, and the Romans explained it generally as due to fear that the bride might stumble, and so offend Vesta, to whom the threshold was sacred (Varro ap. Serv. on Verg. Ecl. 8.29), or begin her new life under an evil omen (Plaut. Cas. l.c.; Ov. Met. 10.452 “ter pedis offensi signo est revocata” ).

Catullus. Catullus. E. T. Merrill. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1893.

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