Why is it embarrassing to sell a son more than twice: Nuances of family law in ancient Rome

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Ancient Rome was distinguished by high conservatism in family relations and great severity towards the place of women and children in the family. And the Romans also adored rules and laws, adopted and wrote them down in huge quantities. And some of the traditional and official family law of the Romans can shock the modern person.

The head of the Roman family was the so-called Pater familias, the oldest male in the family. Only the father of the family was allowed to own land and represent the family in court and economic transactions. Even an adult man of forty was deprived of these rights while his father was alive.

Any child born in the family became a new family member only after the older man recognized him. Traditionally, the baby was placed at the feet of the father of the family. If he took a child in his arms, he would have a son, daughter, grandson or granddaughter. An unrecognized child was not considered a Roman citizen, even if he was not thrown out to die.

In addition, for a very long time, fathers had the right to trade and kill their children. Even the mother of the child had no right to demand revenge later. A child is a man's property, period. By the way, the number of children in the family was regulated by the temporary sale into slavery and murder - even in ancient Rome they knew that fewer children are easier to feed. Only contraception was not used. Why, if it's easy to get rid of the child after birth?

But for the murder of his father, one of the most cruel death sentences was imposed. The patricide was blindfolded, taken out of town, stripped naked and beaten with sticks to a pulp. After that, they were hammered in the same barrel with a snake, dog, monkey and rooster and thrown into the sea. The distraught animals attacked each other and the man, tormenting him until he dies.

The father also had the right to kill any person whom he found during intercourse with his unmarried daughter. Even if the daughter was over thirty and had love. If the father killed his daughter's lover, then he was obliged to kill the daughter too.

It cannot be said that the law did not in any way protect children from the tyranny of their fathers. First, the laws of Octavian Augustus prohibited the killing of children (this is already in the last years BC). Secondly, the father had the right to sell the child into temporary slavery no more than three times. After the third time, he lost parental rights to this child, because more than two sales were considered abuse. So enterprising dads sold their children in turn.

The recognized children of a Roman citizen were marked with special amulets: bulls for boys and lunulas for girls. This was necessary so that any passer-by could easily understand which children can be beaten and raped, and for which they will be condemned. And then you never know, walked, had fun, and you were dragged to court or killed on the spot. It's unpleasant.

The marriageable age for Romans began at 12 for girls and 14 for boys. Marrying a boy, however, did not mean becoming a full citizen. With this, he had to wait up to 25 years, and if we recall the rights of the fathers of families, then even longer.

At the wedding, instead of kissing, the young shook hands. First, tenderness was considered a sign of weakness for a man, and should not be shown. Secondly, marriage was not at all associated with love, it was a deal between two families. So shaking hands seemed very logical. Europeans still do this when making a deal. Of course, officially the marriage handshake was a sign of heartfelt unity, but it is worth remembering that often the newlyweds saw each other for the first time at a wedding - what kind of unity is there.

Although traditional laws enslaved women in every possible way, wives still learned to bypass them over time. For example, in order for a thing to become the property of a Roman, he had to own it for at least a year. Women who did not want to become the property of men had to run away every year and hide from their husbands for three days. Well, yes, women were a thing. Therefore, the law worked on them.

In most traditional times, a married woman was subject to death if anyone saw her drunk.

Over time, the laws of Rome softened, science and philosophy developed and moved forward, and falling in love no longer seemed something strange and unworthy of men. In addition, it became much freer with sexual activity (men in it, however, were little limited from the very beginning). One of the emperors, Octavian Augustus, did not like all this, and he issued many laws to strengthen the family and restore traditional morality.

For example, the emperor stopped the practice of male fraud, when some rogue married a woman, took her dowry, enjoyed in bed with her, and two years later, under a far-fetched pretext, gave a divorce (which she had no right to dispute) and returned the woman to her father. leaving everything that she brought with her after the wedding. The emperor established a law according to which, in the event of a divorce, the dowry was returned to the family with the woman. True, he was interested in protecting not his wives, but the economic interests of his father-in-law.

It also made marriage mandatory for all men under 60 and women under 50 from the senatorial and equestrian classes. At the same time, men were forbidden to marry the daughters of freedmen in the name of the purity of the blood of the Roman elite. Bachelors were limited in their rights, for example, they were forbidden to inherit any property. Married, but without recognized children, received only half of the money bequeathed to them. However, engaged men were not considered bachelors, so many Romans fictitiously, for a time, got engaged to immature girls and then “waited” for her to come of age. By law, the engagement was considered valid for exactly two years; two years later, one was torn apart and the other was announced.

Octavian Augustus was very worried about the low birth rate. He made it a duty to have children for every free Roman under the threat of a fine. It should be noted that while the emperor began the struggle for childbirth, in fact, Rome was overpopulated. However, one of his laws in favor of having children worked to free a woman from the power of her husband: she became a free citizen, giving birth to a third child.

To encourage marriage, Octavian Augustus allowed young men and women to apply for permission from the magistrate if their fathers were against the wedding. In general, I must say, in ancient Rome there were several types of marriage, which were regulated by different laws: cum manu (transfer of full power over a woman from the guardian to her husband), sine manu (power over a married woman remained with the guardian) and konkubinat (actual cohabitation in marriage) without a wedding). Cum manu marriage could have been done through traditional ceremonies or through the purchase of a bride. The latter form was more popular with commoners.

Only in the fifth century BC, marriages between the nobility (patricians) and commoners (plebeians) became possible. If at the same time the wife was a patrician (this was only possible with the wealth of the groom), she was still considered to belong to the father. not my husband. In general, for a long time, fathers voluntarily could divorce their daughters from their husbands. Only in the second century BC there was a ban on such a manifestation of paternal power, except in cases when the marriage is unsuccessful and the father thus saves his daughter.

For some time, a slave girl released into the wild, who became the wife of her former master, could, like the Romans, file for divorce, but Octavian Augustus deprived the freedmen of this right. And by the way, slaves. It became possible for slaves to marry officially at all. But even under Augustus, Roman soldiers could not marry and recognize children. The family was believed in Rome to rob a man of his fighting spirit. Around this prohibition, the legend was born about Saint Valentine as the victim of the wedding of soldiers with their beloved girls.

The Romans sought the fulfillment of the laws, I must say, not only fines, but also executions. The most popular and very creepy was the crucifixion of a man..