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The ''pater familias'', also written as ''paterfamilias'' (plural ''patres familias''), was the head of a Roman family. The ''pater familias'' was the oldest living male in a household, and could legally exercise autocratic authority over his extended family. The term is
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
for "father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate". The form is archaic in Latin, preserving the old
genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can a ...
ending in (see Latin declension), whereas in classical Latin the normal first declension genitive singular ending was . The ''pater familias'' always had to be a
Roman citizen Citizenship in ancient Rome (Latin: ''civitas'') was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance. Citizenship in Ancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, t ...
.
Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...
and tradition (''
mos majorum The ''mos maiorum'' (; "ancestral custom" or "way of the ancestors," plural ''mores'', cf. English "mores"; ''maiorum'' is the genitive plural of "greater" or "elder") is the unwritten code from which the ancient Romans derived their social norms ...
'') established the power of the ''pater familias'' within the community of his own extended ''familia''. In Roman family law, the term "Patria potestas" (Latin: “power of a father”) refers to this concept. He held legal privilege over the property of the ''familia'', and varying levels of authority over his dependents: these included his wife and
children A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...
, certain other relatives through blood or adoption, clients, freedmen and slaves. The same ''mos majorum'' moderated his authority and determined his responsibilities to his own ''familia'' and to the broader community. He had a duty to father and raise healthy children as future citizens of Rome, to maintain the moral propriety and well-being of his household, to honour his clan and ancestral gods and to dutifully participate—and if possible, serve—in Rome's political, religious and social life. In effect, the ''pater familias'' was expected to be a good citizen. In theory at least, he held powers of life and death over every member of his extended ''familia'' through ancient right. In practice, the extreme form of this right was seldom exercised. It was eventually limited by law. In the Roman tradition, the term has appeared mostly in legal texts, and to a lesser extent, in literary texts. In both types of discourses, the term has been most commonly used to refer to the “estate owner,” a title considered conceptually separate from his familial relations.


Roman ''familia''

The Roman household was conceived of as an economic and juridical unit or estate: ''familia'' originally meant the group of the ''famuli'' (the ''servi'' the slaves of a rural estate) living under the same roof. That meaning later expanded to indicate the ''familia'' as the basic Roman social unit, which might include the ''
domus In Ancient Rome, the ''domus'' (plural ''domūs'', genitive ''domūs'' or ''domī'') was the type of town house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican and Imperial eras. It was found in almost all the ma ...
'' (house or home) but was legally distinct from it: a ''familia'' might own one or several homes. All members and properties of a ''familia'' were subject to the authority of a ''pater familias'': his legal, social and religious position defined ''familia'' as a microcosm of the Roman state. In Roman law, the '' potestas'' of the ''pater familias'' was official but distinct from that of magistrates. Only a
Roman citizen Citizenship in ancient Rome (Latin: ''civitas'') was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance. Citizenship in Ancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, t ...
held the status of ''pater familias'', and there could be only one holder of that office within a household. He was responsible for its well-being, reputation and legal and moral propriety. The entire ''familia'' was expected to adhere to the core principles and laws of the
Twelve Tables The Laws of the Twelve Tables was the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. Formally promulgated in 449 BC, the Tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws.Crawford, M.H. 'Twelve Tables' in Simon Hornblowe ...
, which the ''pater familias'' had a duty to exemplify, enjoin and, if necessary, enforce, so within the ''familia'' Republican law and tradition (''mos majorum'') allowed him powers of life and death (''vitae necisque potestas''). He was also obliged to observe the constraints imposed by Roman custom and law on all ''potestas''. His decisions should be obtained through counsel, consultation and consent within the ''familia'', which were decisions by committee (''consilium''). The family ''consilia'' probably involved the most senior members of his own household, especially his wife, and, if necessary, his peers and seniors within his extended clan (''gens'').
Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
's legislation on the morality of marriage co-opted the traditional ''potestas'' of the ''pater familias''. Augustus was not only Rome's ''princeps'' but also its father (''pater patriae''). As such, he was responsible for the entire Roman ''familia''. Rome's survival required that citizens produce children. That could not be left to individual conscience. The falling birth rate was considered a marker of degeneracy and self-indulgence, particularly among the elite, who were supposed to set an example. ''
Lex Julia A ''lex Julia'' (plural: ''leges Juliae'') was an ancient Roman law that was introduced by any member of the gens Julia. Most often, "Julian laws", ''lex Julia'' or ''leges Juliae'' refer to moral legislation introduced by Augustus in 23 BC, o ...
maritandis ordinibus'' compelled marriage upon men and women within specified age ranges and remarriage on the divorced and bereaved within certain time limits. The '' Lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis'' severely penalised adulterous wives and any husbands who tolerated such behaviour. The ''
Lex Papia Poppaea The ''Lex Papia et Poppaea'' was a Roman law introduced in 9 AD to encourage and strengthen marriage. It included provisions against adultery and against celibacy after a certain age and complemented and supplemented Augustus' '' Lex Iulia de ma ...
'' extended and modified the laws in relation to intermarriage between social classes and inheritance. Compliance was rewarded and exceptional public duty brought exemption, but dictatorial compulsion was deeply unpopular and quite impractical. The laws were later softened in theory and practise, but the imperial '' quaestio perpetua'' remained. Its public magistrates now legally over-rode the traditional rights of the family ''concilium'' and ''pater familias''. The principate shows a clear trend towards the erosion of individual ''patria potestas'' and the increasing intrusion of the state into the juridical and executive independence of the ''familia'' under its ''pater''.


As priest of ''familia'', ''gens'' and ''genius''

The domestic responsibilities of the ''pater familias'' included his priestly duties (''sacra familiae'') to his "household gods" (the
Lares Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ''Lar'') were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an amalgam of these. Lare ...
and
Penates In ancient Roman religion, the Di Penates () or Penates ( ) were among the ''dii familiares'', or household deities, invoked most often in domestic rituals. When the family had a meal, they threw a bit into the fire on the hearth for the Penates. ...
) and the ancestral gods of his own ''
gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; plural: ''gentes'' ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same nomen and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (plural: ''stirpes''). The ''gen ...
''. The latter were represented by the di parentes as ancestral shades of the departed, and by the
genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for future works, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabili ...
cult. ''Genius'' has been interpreted as the essential, heritable spirit (or divine essence, or soul) and generative power that suffused the ''gens'' and each of its members. As the singular, lawful head of a family derived from a
gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; plural: ''gentes'' ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same nomen and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (plural: ''stirpes''). The ''gen ...
, the ''pater familias'' embodied and expressed its ''genius'' through his pious fulfillment of ancestral obligations. The ''pater familias'' was therefore owed a reciprocal duty of ''genius'' cult by his entire ''familia''. He in his turn conferred ''genius'' and the duty of ''sacra familiae'' to his children—whether by blood or by adoption. Roman religious law defined the religious rites of ''familia'' as ''sacra privata'' (funded by the ''familia'' rather than the state) and "unofficial" (not a rite of state office or magistracy, though the state ''pontifices'' and ''censor'' might intervene if the observation of sacra privata was lax or improper). The responsibility for funding and executing ''sacra privata'' therefore fell to the head of the household and no other. As well as observance of common rites and festivals (including those marked by domestic rites), each family had its own unique internal religious calendar—marking the formal acceptance of infant children, coming of age, marriages, deaths and burials. In rural estates, the entire ''familia'' would gather to offer sacrifice(s) to the gods for the protection and fertility of fields and livestock. All such festivals and offerings were presided over by the ''pater familias''.


Wife

The legal ''potestas'' of the ''pater familias'' over his wife depended on the form of marriage between them. In the Early Republic, a wife was "handed over" from the legal control of her father to the legal control of (the father of) her husband in the form of marriage ''cum manu'' (Latin ''cum manu'' means "with hand"). If the man divorced his wife, he or his father had to give the
dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...
and the wife back to the ''pater familias'' of the wife's former family. By the Late Republic, ''manus'' marriage had become rare, and a woman legally remained part of her birth family, under the hand of their ''pater familias''. Women emancipated from the ''potestas'' of a ''pater familias'' were independent by law (''sui iuris'') but had a male guardian appointed to them. A woman ''sui iuris'' had the right to take legal action on her own behalf but not to administer legal matters for others.


Children

The laws of the
Twelve Tables The Laws of the Twelve Tables was the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. Formally promulgated in 449 BC, the Tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws.Crawford, M.H. 'Twelve Tables' in Simon Hornblowe ...
required the ''pater familias'' to ensure that "obviously deformed" infants were put to death. The survival of congenitally disabled adults, conspicuously evidenced among the elite by the partially-lame Emperor
Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor ...
, demonstrates that personal choice was exercised in the matter. The ''pater familias'' had the power to sell his children into
slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
;
Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...
provided, however, that if a child had been sold as a slave three times, he was no longer subject to ''patria potestas''. The ''pater familias'' had the power to approve or reject
marriages Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
of his sons and daughters; however, an edict of Emperor Augustus provided that the ''pater familias'' could not withhold that permission lightly. The ''filii familias'' (children of the family) could include the biological and adopted children of the ''pater familias'' and his siblings. Because of their extended rights (their ''longa manus'', literally "long hand"), the ''patres familias'' also had a series of extra duties: duties towards the ''filii'' and the slaves, but some of the duties were recognized not by the original ''
ius civile Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...
'' but only by the '' ius gentium'', specially directed to foreigners, or by the ''ius honorarium'', the law of the ''
Magistratus The Roman magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the King of Rome was the principal executive magistrate.Abbott, 8 His power, in practice, was absolute. He was the chief priest, lawgiver, jud ...
'', especially the ''
Praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...
'', which would emerge only in a latter period of Roman law. Adult ''filii'' remained under the authority of their ''pater'' and could not themselves acquire the rights of a ''pater familias'' while he lived. Legally, any property acquired by individual family members (sons, daughters or slaves) was acquired for the family estate: the ''pater familias'' held sole rights to its disposal and sole responsibility for the consequences, including personal forfeiture of rights and property through debt. Those who lived in their own households at the time of the death of the ''pater'' succeeded to the status of ''pater familias'' over their respective households (''pater familias sui iuris'') even if they were only in their teens. Children "emancipated" by a pater familias were effectively disinherited. If a ''pater familias'' died intestate, his children were entitled to an equal share of his estate. If a will was left, children could contest the estate. Over time, the absolute authority of the ''pater familias'' weakened, and rights that theoretically existed were no longer enforced or insisted upon. The power over life and death was abolished, the right of punishment was moderated and the sale of children was restricted to cases of extreme necessity. Under Emperor
Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania ...
, a father who killed his son was stripped of both his citizenship and all its attendant rights, had his property confiscated and was permanently exiled.


Slavery


Roman context

The original classical Roman definition of ''familia'' referred to “a body of slaves,” and did not refer to wives and children.David Herlihy, ''Medieval Households'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985), 2-3. The classical legal concept of ''pater familias'' as “head of household” derived from this early conception of ''familia'' and, thus, from the legal relationship between slaveowners and their enslaved laborers rather than that between fathers and children. Since the early classical period, Roman writers and jurists have interpreted ancient writers’ invocation of ''pater familias'' as the basis of the concept of “head of household”—over the alternative Latin word for slaveowner, '' dominus''—as a purposeful choice, intended to mitigate the harsh connotations that the act of slaveholding conferred onto heads of households and expanding the applicability of the term to non-enslaved members of the household. As a semantic term, ''pater familias'' thus connoted heads of household who were thought to combine the affective tenderness of a father with the stern coercion of a slaveowner in ordering their households.Richard P. Saller, "Pater Familias, Mater Familias, and the Gendered Semantics of the Roman Household," ''Classical Philology'', 94, no. 2 (Apr., 1999): 191-2. As Roman jurists began to articulate the legal conception of ''pater familias'' from the early classical period onwards, the minimum qualification for assuming the status of ''pater familias'' came to be understood as one’s capacity to own property. However, in Roman law, this was considered a distinct dimension of the ''pater familias''’ authority from their capacity to hold dominion over enslaved persons. While both enslaved people and the estate itself were considered part of the ''familia'' unit over which ''pater familias'' held authority, they were recognized as distinct from family members (wives, children, and grandchildren). Despite these distinctions, what all members of the household shared was their subjecthood to the authority, or '' potestas'', of the ''pater familias''. By the second century, A.D., the distinction between family members and enslaved persons residing in the same household had lessened, even as the ''patria potestas'' also weakened over time. ''Patres familias'' wielded complete and separate authority over members of their households, including their enslaved laborers. In cases of adjudicating legal transgressions committed by enslaved persons, ''patres familias'' exhibited equivalent jurisdiction as that of local civil magistrates, including the ability to absolve the enslaved of any wrongdoing, trying them by jury, or sentencing them to capital punishments. While some Roman ''patres familias'' permitted enslaved individuals in their households to establish quasi-marital unions (known as '' contubernia'') as a means of forming communal bonds among the enslaved, these unions were only recognized within the household and carried no legal bearing outside of the household. The children that resulted from these unions were themselves enslaved and considered the legal property of their mother’s owner. Roman legal sources often recognized enslaved people as part of the ''instrumenta'' (roughly translated as “equipment”) of the household to highlight the service they provided the ''pater familias''. This definition included both enslaved people working in field settings and those living in the domestic household and working in direct service of the ''pater familias.''Richard P. Saller, "Pater Familias, Mater Familias, and the Gendered Semantics of the Roman Household," ''Classical Philology'', 94, no. 2 (Apr., 1999): 187. Roman women ''
sui iuris ''Sui iuris'' ( or ) also spelled ''sui juris'', is a Latin phrase that literally means "of one's own right". It is used in both secular law and the Catholic Church's canon law. The term church ''sui iuris'' is used in the Catholic '' Code of Ca ...
'' (“of their own power,” and not under the authority of any ''pater familias'') possessed the legal right to own enslaved people as ''instrumenta'', though jurists decided on a case-by-case basis whether to extend the status of ''pater familias'' to them in their capacity as slaveowners. In general, however, the status of ''pater familias'' could not be fully extended to women ''sui iuris'' because Roman law recognized the authority that ''pater familias'' wielded over members of the immediate family as strictly gendered, i.e., male. Nonetheless, historians and legal scholars have often overlooked this exception to the rule that allowed some women ''sui iuris'' (usually wealthy and of the upper socioeconomic stratum of society) to attain legal recognition as ''pater familias'' through their ownership of enslaved persons.


Historical applications

Outside of the Roman context, various slavery regimes in world history have adopted the concept of ''pater familias'' to structure the legal, cultural, and social relationships between slaveowners and enslaved people. The law code of fifteenth-century Valencian society, for example, adopted the classical Roman conception of ''familia'' to recognize servant laborers and enslaved persons as members of the domestic household, roughly equal in status to family members given their subjecthood to the authority of the ''pater familias''. As a consequence of this, ''patres familias'' maintained honor and status within their communities by fulfilling both the material and spiritual needs of all members of the household, including enslaved persons. This included providing for the food, clothing, shelter, education, and baptism of enslaved persons. When they reneged on these obligations, the law code considered them to forfeit their right to ownership of their enslaved, leading in some cases to disputes between paternal heads of household over the status of enslaved persons whom they each claimed to have “raised.” In the context of plantation slavery in the antebellum U.S. South, slaveowning planters developed a rhetorical defense of slavery as a benevolent, paternalistic institution based on the ancient Roman model of the ''pater familias''. Some planters employed the concept as a legal protectionary measure, instructing renters to whom the
“hired out”
their enslaved laborers to “treat” them “as good ''pater familias'',” in an effort to stymie abusive practices. Others used the concept to rationalize planter rule, claiming themselves sovereigns of their households who provided for all constituent members, and demanding their loyalty and labor in return. Drawing on the Roman precedent in this way, these planters claimed that their enslaved laborers were their “dependents,” who ultimately benefitted from the paternalistic ordering of the household. Southern newspapers and print media repeatedly promoted this idea in order to square the intrinsic brutality that defined the institution of slavery with the democratic ideals the nation was supposedly founded on, often developing this paternalistic ideology to irrational heights and ignoring the contradictions that it masked. This paternalistic ideology persisted after the legal abolition of slavery, as white employers and political leaders in the South attempted to maintain a hierarchical socioeconomic class status over formerly enslaved persons, as well as women and poor laborers, whom they viewed as “dependents,” thereby expanding the Roman household model of ''pater familias'' to the level of broader society. The patriarchal mode of slavery that Southern U.S. and Caribbean slaveowners attempted to establish often clashed with the familial structures enslaved people themselves constructed. Some of these family structures had roots in West African societies. The Akan society of the Gold Coast, for example, was largely
matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...
and composed of individual “clans or lineages,” descended from a single mother. Mandé society, while more often organized along patrilineal lines, exhibited some matrilineal lines and generally reserved powerful positions of political and household authority for women. In Igbo society, women were “most celebrated” for their roles as mothers and wives, but also participated in independent market activity and in communal defense. As a sizable proportion of enslaved people transported to the New World in the trans-Atlantic trade originated from Akan, Mandé, and Igbo societies, some historians have noted a connection between the matrilineal elements of these West African cultures and the centrality of women and mothers in enslaved peoples’ family units. These alternative modes of structuring household and family life among enslaved people threatened some planters’ intentions to serve as the solely acknowledged ''pater familias'' of their households.John Hearne, "Landscape With Faces," ''Caribbean Quarterly'' 47, no. 1 (March 2001): 61-62.


See also

*
Bonus pater familias In Roman law, the term ''bonus pater familias'' ("good family father") refers to a standard of care, analogous to that of the reasonable man in English law. In Spanish law, the term used is a direct translation ("un buen padre de familia"), ...
*
Kyrios ''Kyrios'' or ''kurios'' ( grc, κύριος, kū́rios) is a Greek word which is usually translated as "lord" or "master". It is used in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew scriptures about 7000 times, in particular translating the nam ...


References


Sources

*Beard, M., Price, S., North, J., ''Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History'', illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 1998. *Beard, M., Price, S., North, J., ''Religions of Rome: Volume 2, a sourcebook'', illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 1998. *Frier, Bruce W., McGinn, Thomas A.J., and Lidov, Joel, ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'', Oxford University Press (American Philological Association), 2004. *Huebner, S. R, Ratzan, D. M. eds. ''Growing up Fatherless in Antiquity,'' Cambridge University Press, 2009. *Parkin, Tim, & Pomeroy, Arthur, ''Roman Social History, a Sourcebook,'' Routledge, 2007. *Severy, Beth, ''Augustus and the family at the birth of the Roman Empire'', Routledge, 2003.


External links


George Long, "Patria Potestas", in William Smith, ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities''
London, John Murray, 1875, pp. 873‑875.

New York, Robert Appleton, 1913. *Olga Tellegen-Couper, "A Short History of Roman Law". {{Italic title Ancient Roman titles Family law in ancient Rome Fathers' rights Latin words and phrases Paternity