Roman Family Essay

The basic unit of Roman society was the family. The state was only an enlarged family in the early days, and its practices grew out of those first formed within the family group. When we think of a family, we understand it to be mother, father, and children. The Roman familas was broader than this. It included not only the parents and children but also the sons’ wives and their families, the slaves, and the clients, whose position was hereditary. When a daughter married, she passed into the household of her husband. The father, the paterfamilias, had complete authority over the members of his family, much as the magistrates had authority over the citizens. He could sell his wife into slavery or divorce her, if he chose. His new-born

If they misbehaved, he could punish them with banishment, slavery, or even death. The father’s authority, however, was limited by custom. People frowned on a man who sold a married son into slavery or who exposed a son or first-born daughter to the animals in the hills surrounding the city of Rome. Before a paterfamilias could condemn his child to death, he had to submit his decision to a family council. The Roman matron [a matured, usually married woman] might have few legal rights, but she enjoyed enormous respect and prestige in the home and in society. Unlike the Athenian wife, she could leave her home to make visits and to attend the games, the theater, and the courts with her husband. In the streets, a path was cleared for her, and anyone who insulted her was deemed worthy of death. In society her position was honored, and in the home she was mistress as her husband was master. In the early days of the Roman Republic, the main occupation of the citizen was farming or herding. Cincinnatus, you might recall, on receiving the summons to be dictator, was occupied in plowing his fields. There were no great inequalities of wealth; while no one was very rich, few were very poor. Each household was largely self-sufficient.