Adoption in ancient Rome
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Adoption in ancient Rome was primarily a legal procedure for transferring paternal power ''( potestas)'' to ensure succession in the male line within Roman patriarchal society. The Latin word ''adoptio'' refers broadly to "adoption", which was of two kinds: the transferral of ''potestas'' over a free person from one head of household to another; and ''adrogatio'', when the adoptee had been acting '' sui iuris'' as a legal adult but assumed the status of unemancipated son for purposes of
inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
. ''Adoptio'' was a longstanding part of Roman family law pertaining to paternal responsibilities such as perpetuating the value of the family estate and ancestral rites ''( sacra)'', which were concerns of the Roman property-owning classes and cultural elite. During the
Principate The Principate was the form of imperial government of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the Dominate. The principate was ch ...
, adoption became a way to ensure imperial succession. In contrast to modern
adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...
, Roman ''adoptio'' was neither designed nor intended to build emotionally satisfying families and support childrearing. Among all social classes, childless couples or those who wanted to expand the size of their families instead might foster children. Evidence is meager for the ''adoptio'' of young children for purposes other than securing a male heir, and probably would have been employed mostly by former slaves legitimating the status of their own children born into slavery or outside a legally valid marriage. Roman women could own, inherit, and control property as
citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...
, and therefore could exercise prerogatives of the ''paterfamilias'' pertaining to ownership and inheritance. They played an increasingly significant role in succession and the inheritance of property from the 2nd century BC through the 2nd century AD, but as an instrument for transferring paternal ''potestas'', adoption was mainly a male-gendered practice.


Social and legal context

Formal adoption was practiced primarily for financial, social, and political purposes among the property-owning classes. Free working people for whom these interests were minimal had little need of the cumbersome legal procedure and instead fostered if they wished to rear children. For the Romans, kinship was "biologically based but not biologically determined", and procedures such as adoption and
divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...
gave them greater latitude to restructure their families than was allowed in Christian Europe.
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
said that adoption was an accepted way to ensure the ''hereditas'' (transmission) of three aspects of Roman family continuity: the family name ''( nomen)'', wealth ''(pecunia)'', and religious rites ''( sacra)''. Adoption was appropriate for a man who had no legitimate children, but if there were already legitimate heirs, adoption risked diluting their inheritance and the social status that came with it. Romans tended to prefer small families of two or three children for this reason, though premodern rates of
neonatal In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to Juvenile (orga ...
and childhood mortality, along with other factors, could be an unsought brake on family size that jeopardized the family line. In adopting an adult heir, the father "could see what he was getting". Adoption was carried out by the male who was head of his family, the '' paterfamilias'', and his adopting did not make his wife a mother. Nor was marriage required; an adult bachelor could adopt in order to pass along his family name and ''potestas'', as could a citizen
eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...
(Latin ''spado'').


The adoptee

A close relative was preferred as the adoptee, and a ''paterfamilias'' might adopt a grandson, especially if the grandson's father was not in the line of succession. The grandson might be his daughter's son, or the ''pater'' might have removed the boy's father from succession by emancipating him. One common pattern in Roman adoption was for a woman's childless brother to adopt one of her sons. A brother or cousin on the father's side might relinquish ''potestas'' over a son to provide a childless man with an adoptive heir. A ''pater'' who had no sons might adopt his daughter's husband to strengthen family lineage, but to avoid technical incest, he would first need to emancipate his daughter so that she was no longer legally a part of the family – the adoption would otherwise create a brother-sister relationship that Roman law regarded as ''consanguines'', the same as blood ties. Adoption of a stepson from the wife's previous marriage was another strategy, if the stepson had no children; after adoption, his offspring would enter the line as grandchildren of the adopting ''paterfamilias''. The adoptee did not have to be a relative. Romans placed a high value on the social bonds of friendship ('' amicitia''), and a childless man might adopt a friend or friend's son. Fostering was preferred to adopting children of "low" birth or unknown parentage, and in
Roman Egypt Roman Egypt was an imperial province of the Roman Empire from 30 BC to AD 642. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai. It was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to the west and Judaea, ...
it was unlawful to adopt a male foundling. The ''paterfamilias'' generally transmitted his estate to an adoptee of his own rank, or the adoptee acquired the social rank of the adoptive family, with some exceptions.


The freedman adoptee

Most often adoption would have been a lateral move or a modest boost to the adoptee's standing and wealth, but a
freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...
could also be adopted. A slave might even be simultaneously manumitted and adopted by his former master, who became both his patron ''( patronus)'' and his "father". The adoption of a freedman placed his property under the control of his new ''paterfamilias''; it no longer belonged to him, but it would return to him along with the rest of his inheritance. The choice of a freedman for adoption may have been motivated most often by gaining access to his resources rather than securing lineage. In the early Republic, a freedman through adoption gained the same status as the freeborn citizen who freed him. By the time of
Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...
, the adopted freedman was regarded as an unemancipated son in matters of family law but held only the rights of freedpersons otherwise. Legislation that more closely regulated the varied statuses of ''liberti'' left the adoptee as a freedman who could not, for example, marry into the senatorial order even if he was adopted by a senator.


Political adoptions and legal dodges

In the late Republican era, Publius Clodius Pulcher famously subverted the usual course of "adopting up", surrendering his patrician status and becoming a nominal
plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the gro ...
in order to qualify for the office of
tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...
. Plebeians had adopted patricians before, but the reasons are not always clear and were not always political. Cicero criticized the ''adrogatio'' of Clodius as solely politically motivated, and Clodius was emancipated immediately after he had achieved his aim. Around the same time, a nominal adoption allowed Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, son of the consul of 57 BC, to take a place in the College of Augurs by getting around the rule against having two members from the same ''
gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; : gentes ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same ''nomen gentilicium'' and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen, was cal ...
''. The adoption seems to have been entirely fictional, since there is no evidence he ever made any use of the nomenclature of the Manlius Toquatus who adopted him. Cicero's own patrician son-in-law, Publius Cornelius Dolabella, followed the path of Clodius in becoming a tribune by having himself adopted by a plebeian Cornelius. Augustan legislation that granted privileges to fathers with multiple children and disadvantaged the childless also prompted adoptions of convenience. Adoption for this purpose became enough of an issue that by the time of
Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...
a senatorial decree had tried to block legal dodges. The historian
Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...
indicates that fictitious or "fake adoption" ''(simulata adoptio)'' could be detected by rapid emancipation once the benefit was realized – benefits including priority in the selection of provincial governors or candidates for office for men who had met the fatherhood quota. The restrictions under the decree are not preserved in full, but a request for ''adrogatio'' could be denied if the would-be adoptive father already had children or was under the age of sixty and assumed able to procreate.


Forms of adoption

''Adoptio'' had some commonalities with ''emancipatio'', the procedure by which an adult son was released from paternal ''potestas'' – regardless of age, Roman men and women remained in effect legal minors as long as their father was alive unless emancipated. The father's relinquishing of ''potestas'' over the son in both cases took the form of a fictive sale, based on an archaic provision 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 Hornbl ...
(mid-5th century BC) that a son sold three times was thereafter released from his father's legal control.


''Adrogatio''

''Adrogatio'' differed from ''adoptio'' in that the person adopted was already '' sui iuris''; another father did not have to surrender his ''potestas'', and rather than extirpating the adoptee's previous family line, the two family lines were merged. An adrogated adoptee was likely to have inherited from the natural father whose death had left him ''sui iuris'', consolidating two patrimonies. Ownership of anything belonging to the adoptee was legally transferred to the ''paterfamilias'', though it was set aside as '' peculium'', a fund or property for use by an unemancipated son or slave. When
Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...
was adopted in adulthood by
Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
, he thereafter observed this longstanding legal requirement by crediting any property he received through inheritance to the ''peculium'' rather than his private ownership. The development of ''adrogatio'' as a form of adoption is bound up with an early procedure for making a will that required the approval of the '' comitia calata'', an assembly of the Roman people. Upon the testator's death, the named heir was in effect adopted by the deceased. The legislative act of adrogation was carried out by thirty magisterial lictors summoned by the Pontifex Maximus. Because adoption law developed to support the particular institutions of Roman society, ''adrogatio'' could take place only in the city of Rome until the reign of
Diocletian Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...
in the late third century. Adrogation of female adoptees became possible through imperial
rescript A rescript is a public government document. More formally, it is a document issued not on the initiative of the author, but in response to a question (usually legal) posed to the author. The word originates from replies issued by Roman emperors t ...
in the Antonine era (AD 138–192), and under exceptional circumstances a woman could adopt in the same way. In one documented case from the 3rd century, a woman whose sons had died was permitted to adopt her stepson. Since a woman did not transfer paternal ''potestas'', however, adoption accomplished little that could not be achieved through exercising her rights under inheritance law.


Testamentary adoption

Testamentary adoption became more common during the late Republic. Octavian, the future Augustus, was adopted in this way by his maternal great-uncle
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
. Although ''adoptio'' was a practice aimed at furthering the succession of male privileges, both men and women could in effect "adopt" by passing along their property in a will with the condition that the heir carry on the family name ''(condicio nominis ferendi)''. The role of women in passing property along the family line became "increasingly important". Technically, this was not adoption but the "institution of an heir." The advantage of this arrangement was that the testator did not have to assume patriarchal responsibilities for the adoptee while he was alive but had assured the continuity of the family name, rites, and estate after his death; the testamentary adoptee did not surrender his own status as a ''pater'' as he would in adrogation but received the benefits of inheritance. Adoption was also the means by which married women could become part of their husband's family. From the late Republic through the Principate, most Roman women married ''sine manu'', meaning that they remained part of their birth family and did not submit to their husband's ''potestas''.
Livia Livia Drusilla (30 January 59 BC AD 29) was List of Roman and Byzantine empresses, Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal Adoption ...
, the wife of Augustus, outlived him, and only upon his death did testamentary adoption make her a part of the Julian family.


Legitimation

Illegitimacy does not appear to have carried much stigma in Roman society before the time of
Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...
, as many forms of Roman marriage existed, some rather loosely defined, along with quasi-marital unions such as '' contubernium'' among slaves and monogamous concubinage ''( concubinatus)''. Birth outside marriage was primarily at issue in matters of inheritance but was not a clearly defined status with debilities in law, as a principle of customary international law ''( ius gentium)'' was that a child took its status from the mother. A freedwoman whose male partner remained enslaved might find it advantageous to assert that her child was fatherless and not conceived during her own servitude, so as to ensure the child's freeborn status. It was unusual for freeborn persons to legitimate a child born outside a legally valid marriage, and typically a man would not adopt his illegitimate child unless he had no other heirs. The adoptee could be '' ingenuus'' (freeborn) or a freedman, and might be a child resulting from ''concubinatus'', though children were not especially desired from these unions. Provisions for retroactive legitimation became more capacious in
late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...
as family law was adapted during the Christianization of the Roman Empire, in particular under Constantine and
Justinian Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...
. In the Classical period, legitimation might have been more common among former slaves. Since slaves lacked
personhood Personhood is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, only a legal person (ei ...
under Roman law, they could neither contract a valid marriage nor institute an heir by means of a will. However, the quasi-marital union of ''contubernium'' was available to heterosexual slave couples with the owner's approval, and expressed an intent to marry if both parties gained rights of marriage and succession upon manumission. Because a male slave did not possess the standing to assert patriarchal ''potestas'', the child of an enslaved father was ''spurius'', one whose father could not be legally identified as such—that is, illegitimate. Since the child's status was determined by the mother's, if a woman was manumitted before her partner and conceived a child with him after that, the child was ''spurius'' but freeborn; unlike freeborn children from a legal marriage, however, the child was born '' sui iuris'', emancipated from the ''potestas'' of an adult male. If the father was later manumitted through a procedure that granted him full citizenship, he could legitimate his child through ''adrogatio''.


Imperial succession

Many Roman emperors came to power through adoption, either because their predecessors had no natural sons, or simply to ensure a smooth transition for the most capable candidate.


The Julio-Claudian dynasty

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
, as he was known after he became the first Roman emperor, was adopted into the '' gens Julia'' in the will of his great uncle,
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
. He inherited Caesar's money, name, and ''
auctoritas is a Latin word that is the origin of the English word "authority". While historically its use in English was restricted to discussions of the political history of Rome, the beginning of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenological philosophy ...
''. As Augustus's central role in the
Principate The Principate was the form of imperial government of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the Dominate. The principate was ch ...
solidified, it became increasingly important for him to designate an heir. He first adopted his daughter Julia's three sons by Marcus Agrippa, renaming them Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, and Agrippa Caesar. After the former two died young and the latter was exiled, Augustus adopted his stepson, Tiberius Claudius Nero, on the condition that he adopt his own nephew,
Germanicus Germanicus Julius Caesar (24 May 15 BC – 10 October AD 19) was a Roman people, Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns against Arminius in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicu ...
(who was also Augustus's great nephew by blood). Tiberius succeeded Augustus, and after Tiberius's death, Germanicus's son
Caligula Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), also called Gaius and Caligula (), was Roman emperor from AD 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Ag ...
became emperor.
Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...
adopted his stepson Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, who changed his name to Nero Claudius Caesar and succeeded Claudius as the emperor,
Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...
.


The adoptive emperors

The Nerva-Antonine dynasty was also united by a series of adoptions. Nerva adopted the popular military leader
Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...
. Trajan in turn took Publius Aelius Hadrianus as his protégé and, although the legitimacy of the process is debatable, Hadrian claimed to have been adopted and took the name ''Caesar Traianus Hadrianus'' when he became emperor. Hadrian adopted Lucius Ceionius Commodus, who changed his name to Lucius Aelius Caesar but predeceased Hadrian. Hadrian then adopted Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus, on condition that Antoninus in turn adopt both the natural son of the late Lucius Aelius and a promising young nephew of his wife. They ruled as
Antoninus Pius Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius (; ; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held var ...
,
Lucius Verus Lucius Aurelius Verus (; 15 December 130 – 23 January 169) was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 169, alongside his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Verus' succession together with Ma ...
and
Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...
respectively.
Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise '' The Prince'' (), writte ...
described them as ''The Five Good Emperors'' and attributed their success to having been chosen for the role: This run of adoptive emperors came to an end when Marcus Aurelius named his biological son,
Commodus Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...
, as his heir. Adoption never became the official method of designating a successor, in part because Roman identity was based on citizenship with a visceral rejection of hereditary kingship. During the
Principate The Principate was the form of imperial government of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the Dominate. The principate was ch ...
, so called from Augustus's styling of himself as ''princeps'' (first among equals, in the manner of the '' princeps senatus''), emperors consolidated their power by making use of the institutions of Republican Rome rather than overthrowing them outright. Augustus's early intentions seem to have been to apprentice and promote a successor on the basis of merit, but his longevity instead created an apparatus of centralized power from which his status as a private citizen could no longer be extricated. His fashioning of himself as "father of his country" enabled the transferral of his power over the Roman people in the same way that a ''paterfamilias'' of a family estate was bound to transfer his ''potestas'' whether or not the available successor was fully meritorious. A major transition in the means of imperial succession marks the periodization of Roman Imperial history into the
Dominate The Dominate is a periodisation of the Roman Empire during late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was p ...
, when
Diocletian Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...
replaced adoption with the '' consortium imperii'', designation of an heir by appointing him partner in ''
imperium In ancient Rome, ''imperium'' was a form of authority held by a citizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct from '' auctoritas'' and '' potestas'', different and generally inferior types of power in the Roman Republic a ...
''.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Adoption In Ancient Rome Adoption history Family law in ancient Rome