The Roman Family

The father in the Roman family (paterfamilias) exercised absolute and lifelong power over the rest of the relatives (patria potestas): his spouse, children, and slaves). If the father’s father was living – he was the supreme authority in the household. Fathers were allowed to fulfill their sons that were older for crimes like treason.

Each home maintained a cult of ancestors and hearth gods and the paterfamilias was its priest. The family was thought to posses a”genius” (gens) – an inner soul – handed down the generations. The living and the dead members of the family shared with the gens and so were bound by it.

Legitimate dinosaurs belonged to the family of the father. The father retained custody in the event the couple (rarely) divorced only in the husband’s encounter. The father had the right – usually deformed boys or girls. This caused a shortage of girls in Rome.

The bride’s father had to pay a large dowry to the groom’s family, thus impoverishing the other members of the family. Daughters shared equally from the estate of a father who died without a will – hence transferring assets to their husband’s family from their family of origin. No wonder females were decried as an economic liability.

In the start, slaves so were well-treated and were considered to be a part of the family. They have been permitted to save cash (peculium) and to purchase their liberty. Freed slaves became full scale Roman citizens and usually stayed on with all the family as hired help or compensated laborers. In the vast plantations gathered from rich Romans, were abused and regarded as property.