Domestic Violence Against Women – Since Romulus?

Has there been a clear principle or precept or standard or norm or something in Western jurisprudence accepting male violence against women stretching back to Romulus (750BC, give or take), famously enshrined 2100 or so years later in the English Common Law ‘rule of thumb’ (that husbands might beat their wives only with a stick no thicker than a thumb)?

Or not?

Watch two women slug it out.

With some noteworthy insights about Romulus as well as the evolution of Common Law and US domestic violence statistics in the many ensuing comments.