Patriarchy, Property and Death in the Roman FamilyThe Roman father, with his monopoly of property rights and power of life and death over his children, has been prominent in the formulation of the concept of patriarchy in European thought. However, the severe, authoritarian image, based on legal rules and legends, provides, according to Professor Saller, a misleading view of relations between the generations in Roman families. Starting from a demographic analysis, aided by computer simulation of the kinship universe, he shows how the family changed through a Roman's life course, leaving many children fatherless. Examination of the Roman language, exempla, and symbolic behaviour of family relations reveals the mutuality of family obligation within the larger household in which children and slaves were differentiated by status marked by the whip. The concerned, loving father appears as a contrast to the exploitative master. |
Contents
Roman life course and kinship biology and culture | 9 |
Roman patterns of death marriage and birth | 12 |
Simulation of Roman family and kinship | 43 |
Roman family and culture definitions and norms | 71 |
Familia and domus defining and representing the Roman family and household | 74 |
Pietas and patria potestas obligation and power in the Roman household | 102 |
Whips and words discipline and punishment in the Roman household | 133 |
The devolution of property in the Roman family | 155 |
Strategies of succession in Roman families | 161 |
Guardianship of Roman children | 181 |
Dowries and daughters in Rome | 204 |
Conclusion | 225 |
| 233 | |
| 245 | |
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Common terms and phrases
AGE OF EGO age twenty-five agnatic Aunt/uncle average life expectancy Bagnall and Frier beating census chapter child Cicero classical corporal punishment daughter demographic divorce domus dotal dowry Duncan-Jones duty early empire evidence exempla female fideicommissum freedmen funerary grandmother guardianship heir historian honor household husband imperial indicates no occurrences inheritance intestacy jurists kin EXACT AGE late later legal instruments Level 3 West living kin EXACT magistrates male married Maternal grandfather microsimulation Model Life Table mortality mother Nephew/niece obligation occurrences in simulation Papinian parents passage paterfamilias Paternal aunt Paternal uncle patria potestas patrimony peculium percent pietas Plautus Pliny population proportion pupillus Quintilian Roman family Roman fathers Roman law Rome Saller Scaevola second century senatorial Seneca Sibling slaves social sons spouses Suetonius suggests sui iuris Tacitus teens testamentary testator Theveste Treggiari 1991a tutela tutor twenties Ulpian Valerius Maximus whip wife women