1
RCS Lecture 3
AEC 10/12
Roman Culture and Society
Lecture 3 – Family and familia
The Family – Definitions: familia and domus

Familia

Domus
 House-tombs
Petronius Satyricon 71:
For it's all wrong for a man to deck out his house when he's alive, and then have no pains taken with
the one he must stay in for a longer time.

Isola Sacra: Tomb 78a:
d(is) m(anibus) / Ti(berius) Claudius Eutychus / Claudiae Memnonidi / coniugi bene merenti et sibi /
liberisque suis fecit libertis / libertabusque posterisque / eorum itu(m) ambitum h(oc) m(onumentum)
h(eredem) n(on) s(equetur) / in fronte p(edes) XV in agro p(edes) XV
‘To the departed spirits. Tiberius Claudius Eutychus constructed for Claudia Memnon his welldeserving wife and himself, his children, and his freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants the
entrance and enclosure. This monument shall not follow the heir. 15 feet across and 15 feet deep.’
The paterfamilias
 Definition.

Rome - a paternalistic society?

Paternal authority - patria potestas
 Legal definitions - Gaius Inst. 1.55:
There are hardly any other men who have over their children a power such as we have

Legendary origins - Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 2.26.-7
= Shelton n.15:
Romulus granted to the Roman father absolute power over his son, and this power was valid until the
father’s death, whether he decided to imprison him, or whip him, to put him in chains and make him
work on a farm, or even to kill him. Romulus even allowed the Roman father to sell his son into
slavery.
o L. Iunius Brutus: Livy 2.5.5-8
Sentence was pronounced and punishment inflicted upon the traitors – a punishment the more
conspicuous because the office of consul imposed upon a father the duty of exacting the penalty from
his sons, and he who ought to have been spared even the sight of their suffering was the very man
whom Fortune appointed to enforce it…. To think that those young men, in that year of all others,
when their country was liberated and her liberator their own father, and when the consulship had begun
with the Junian family, could have brought themselves to betray all – the senate, the plebs, and all the
gods and men of Rome – to one who had formerly been a tyrannical king and was then an enemy
exile!...The culprits were stripped, scourged with rods, and beheaded, while through it all men gazed at
the expression on the father’s face, where they might clearly read a father’s anguish, as he administered
the nation’s retribution.
o Sallust, Catiline 39.5:
Yet even as it was, there were many outside the ranks of the conspiracy who, when hostilities began,
went to join Catiline. Among them was Fulvius, a senator’s son, who was brought back and put to
death by order of his father.

social expectation of indulgence
1
Roman Culture & Society, Lecture 3
2
RCS Lecture 3
AEC 10/12

Religion – genius: genio L. nostri Felix l. = Cooley & Cooley (2004) E55

Peculium
Cicero, Letter to Atticus 12.7:
"He wished to go to Spain; he wanted a liberal allowance." As to a liberal allowance, I said that he
should have as much as Publius gave his son, and the priest Lentulus gave his.
Cicero, Letter to Atticus 14.7:
I have had a very well written and pretty long letter from my son. Other things may be put on, but the
classic style of his letter shows that he is improving in scholarship. Now I beg you earnestly--a point on
which I recently spoke to you--to see that he is not in want of anything. That is a duty on my part,
and also concerns my reputation and position: which I perceive is your opinion also … pray make
it your business to see that we give him an allowance on the most honourable and liberal scale.

Significance of patria potestas
Marriage
 Legal minimum age

Tombstone of Aurelia Philematio (British Museum) = Shelton nos 54, 65.
Aurelius Hermia, freedman of Lucius, butcher of the Viminal hill. This woman, who has
preceded me in death, chaste of body, loving of spirit, my only wife, lived faithful to her
faithful husband with equal devotion since she failed in her duty out of no avarice.
Aurelia freedwoman of Lucius.
Aurelia Philematio, freedwoman of Lucius. While I lived, I was named Aurelia Philematium,
chaste, modest, ignorant of the rabble, faithful to my husband. My husband, whom I am
without, alas, was freedman to this same Lucius. He was to me in fact and in truth more than
and beyond a parent. He took me to his bosom at the age of seven years. At the age of forty
years I am stronger than death. He flourished in the eyes of all due to my constant dutifulness.

Marriage: dextrarum coniunctio
 Problems of interpreting visual evidence:
Fonteia Eleusis tomb relief in BM: CIL VI 18524, Rome
Fonteia |(mulieris) l(iberta) Eleusis h(aec) o(llae?) dat(ae) a Fonteia |(mulieris) l(iberta) Helena
‘Fonteia Eleusis, freedwoman of a woman; ?these urns? given by Fonteia Helena, freedwoman of a
woman.’

Who could marry whom?
only citizens
not across some status boundaries

Alternative to marriage - conubium
2
Roman Culture & Society, Lecture 3
3

RCS Lecture 3
AEC 10/12
Family tombstones
 Tombstone of Vesinia Iucunda's family:
SEX MAELIVS
SEX L STABILIO
VESINIA ) L
IVCVNDA
SEX MAELIVS
SEX L FAVSTVS
‘Sextus Maelius Stabilio, freedman of Sextus. Vesinia Iucunda, freedwoman of a woman. Sextus
Maelius Faustus, freedman of Sextus.’
TASK:
Look carefully at the tombstone of Vesinia Iucunda.
 How can we judge the relative ages of the three figures depicted?
 What is their status?
 What is their relationship to each other?

Tombstone of Quintus Servilius' family:
P(ublius) Servilius Q(uinti) f(ilius)
Globulus f(ilius)
Q(uintus) Servilius Q(uinti) l(ibertus)
Sempronia
Hilarus pater
C(aii) l(iberta) Eune uxor
‘Publius Servilius Globulus, son of Quintus, son; Quintus Servilius Hilarus, freedman of Quintus,
father; Sempronia Eune, freedwoman of Gaius, wife.’
TASK:
Look carefully at the inscription and relief and answer the following:
 What is the relationship between these three figures?
 Can we make any deductions about their social status?
 What impression do you think they are trying to make on the viewer?

Women's 'rights'
 under father’s power
 on marriage could be under husband’s power
 remain under father’s power/ in father’s family
 man & wife had separate financial possessions + dowry
 woman under guardian
 exemption from guardianship

Divorce
Looking for ideal family life - literature and inscriptions
GROUP DISCUSSION:
 What sorts of qualities/ types of behaviour do you think a Roman husband valued
in his wife, and a wife in her husband?
 Do you expect there to have been different ideals espoused by people of various
social statuses?
3
Roman Culture & Society, Lecture 3
4
RCS Lecture 3
AEC 10/12
TASK:
1. Read the following passages individually, and then discuss with each
other what values emerge from them.
2. How do these values compare with what the group expected?
3. Identify the social status of the women mentioned in the inscriptions. Does
this affect the values expressed?
Practise creating an argument by close reference to the texts.
A. Pliny the Younger, Letters 4.19 (to Calpurnia Hispulla, aunt of his new wife)
…I know then how glad you will be to hear that she has proved herself worthy of her father,
her grandfather and you. She is highly intelligent and a careful housewife, and her devotion to me is a
sure indication of her virtue. In addition, this love has given her an interest in literature: she keeps
copies of my works to read again and again and even learn by heart. She is so anxious when she knows
that I am going to plead in court, and so happy when all is over! (She arranges to be kept informed of
the sort of reception and applause I receive, and what verdict I win in the case.) If I am giving a reading
she sits behind a curtain near by and greedily drinks in every word of appreciation. She has even set my
verses to music and sings them, to the accompaniment of her lyre, with no musician to teach her but the
best of masters, love....Please accept our united thanks for having given her to me and me to her as if
chosen for each other.
B. Pliny the Younger, Letters 1.14 (to Junius Mauricus)
You ask me to look out for a husband for your brother’s daughter... I should have had a long
search if Minicius Acilianus were not at hand, as if he were made for us. He loves me as warmly as one
young man does another (he is a little younger than I am), but respects me as his elder, for he aspires to
be influenced and guided by me... His native place is Brixia, one of the towns in our part of Italy which
stills retains intact much of its honest simplicity along with the rustic virtues of the past. His father is
Minicius Macrinus, who chose to remain a leading member of the order of equestrians because he
desired nothing higher... His maternal grandmother, Serrana Procula, comes from the town of
Patavium, whose reputation you know; but Serrana is a model of propriety even to the Patavians. His
uncle, Publius Acilius, is a man of exceptional character, wisdom and integrity. You will in fact find
nothing to criticize in the whole household...
Acilianus himself has abundant energy and application, but no lack of modesty. He has held
the offices of quaestor, tribune and praetor with great distinction, thus sparing you the necessity of
canvassing on his behalf. He has a frank expression, and his complexion is fresh and high-coloured; his
general good looks have a natural nobility and the dignified bearing of a senator.... I am wondering
whether to add that his father has ample means...
It may seem to you that I have been indulging my affection, and going further than the facts
allow, but I assure you on my honour that you will find the reality far better than my description...
C. Tomb of Amymone (ILS 8402) – Lefkowitz and Fant n.41 – Gardner &
Wiedemann n.53– 1st C. BC, Rome
Here lies Amymone wife of Marcus, the best and most beautiful, busy at her wool-working,
devoted, modest, thrifty, faithful, happy to stay at home.
D. Tomb of Postumia Matronilla (ILS 8444, Thelepte, Algeria – Gardner &
Wiedemann n.58
Sacred to the spirits of the deceased. Postumia Matronilla was a wife without peer, a good
mother, a dutiful grandmother, modest, pious, hard-working, thrifty, active, wakeful, concerned; she
married one man, and slept with one man; she was a matron who worked hard and could be relied
upon. She lived for 53 years, 5 months, 3 days.

Ideal and reality – funerary commemoration of families
 tombs – emphasis on nuclear family unit
4
Roman Culture & Society, Lecture 3
5
RCS Lecture 3





AEC 10/12
importance of passing on family name; HMHNS formula hoc monumentum
heredibus non sequetur: ‘this monument shall not pass to the heir’
wetnurses (non-kin)
tatae & mammae
Children under-represented
limitation of epitaphs as evidence for sentiment
 Epitaph of Minicia Marcella – AD 105, ILS 1030 (Lefkowitz/Fant
n.264):
To the gods of the dead. The tomb of Minicia Marcella, daughter of Fundanus. She lived 12 yrs, 11
months, 7 days.
Pliny Letters 5.16 (Lefkowitz/Fant n.263):
He is indeed a wise and scholarly man, having dedicated himself since he was young to the nobler
subjects & arts; but now he rejects all he used to hear & often said, & his devotion has supplanted
every other virtue. But if you consider what he has lost, you will forgive, or even praise him.
Representations of Children
 Concept of childhood? Philippe Aries.


Rituals at birth & coming of age

Children's games/ toys:
 Rag doll, British Museum
 Toys from Karanis, Egypt
Children in art
o Children as childish:
Relief, Rome (Villa Doria Pamphili)
Funerary altar of A. Egrilius Magnus, Ostia. CIL XIV 4899/ Museo
Ostiense. inv. 1375.
Dis Manibus A. Egrilio A. f. Pal. Magno vix. ann. v. meses viiii dies viiii
To the departed spirits. To Aulus Egripius Magnus, son of Aulus, of the Palatina voting-tribe; lived 5
years, 9 months, 9 days.

Attitudes to child mortality:
 Mortality rates.
 Child burials: Chantambre, France
 Contradictory picture:
 Plutarch Numa 12:
As, for example, a child of three years was not to be mourned for at all; one older, up to ten years,
for as many months as it was years old; and the longest time of mourning for any person whatsoever
was not to exceed the term of ten months; which was the time appointed for women that lost their
husbands to continue in widowhood.
 Seneca Moral Letters 99
I enclose a copy of the letter which I wrote to Marullus at the time when he had lost his little son
(filium parvulum) and was reported to be rather womanish in his grief (molliter ferre) - a letter in
which I have not observed the usual form of condolence: for I did not believe that he should be handled
gently, since in my opinion he deserved criticism rather than consolation. …You are like a woman
in the way you take your son's death; what would you do if you had lost an intimate friend? A son, a
little child of unknown promise, is dead; a fragment of time has been lost. … Grief like yours has this
among other evils: it is not only useless, but thankless.
5
Roman Culture & Society, Lecture 3
6
RCS Lecture 3

AEC 10/12
cf Cicero Tusculan Disuptations 1.39:
Away, then, with those follies, which are little better than the old women’s dreams, such as that it is
miserable to die before our time. What time do you mean? That of nature? But she has only lent you
life, as she might lend you money, without fixing any certain time for its repayment. Have you any
grounds of complaint, then, that she recalls it at her pleasure, for you received it on these terms. They
that complain thus allow that if a young child dies, the survivors ought to bear his loss with
equanimity; that if an infant in the cradle dies, they ought not even to utter a complaint; and yet
nature has been more severe with them in demanding back what she gave. They answer by saying that
such have not tasted the sweets of life; while the other had begun to conceive hopes of great happiness,
and, indeed, had begun to realize them.

Fronto On the Loss of his grandson 2, AD 165:
Through all my life fortune has pursued me with sorrows of this kind. For, leaving out my other
bitter experiences, I have lost five of my children and the timing of my losses has been particularly
wretched, since in each and every case the child I lost was my only one. …But I bore more
courageously those sorrows by which I alone was tortured. But now, with the loss of my grandson, my
own grief is multiplied by the grief of my daughter, the grief of my son-in-law…. And now my
darling grandson whom I myself am bringing up in my heart, he is the one who tears my being and
tortures me more and more as time goes on.

Exposure
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 744: 1 BC, Hilarion to wife Alis = Shelton n.36
I send you my warmest greetings. I want you to know that we are still in Alexandria. And please don’t
worry if all the others come home but I remain in Alexandria. I beg you and entreat you to take care of
the child and, if I receive my pay soon, I’ll send it up to you. If you have the baby before I return, if
it’s a boy, let it live; if it’s a girl, expose it. You sent a message with Aphrodisias: ‘Don’t forget me’.
How can I forget you? I beg you, then, not to worry.


Non-elite: child-workers - apprenticeship docs. from Egypt
 Lefkowitz/Fant n.283 - OxyPap. 1647
 Sherk n.175
Augustus and the family – restoring Roman society
 marriage legislation 18 BC
 adultery law
 opposition to laws – Suet. Aug. 34 = Lefkowitz/Fant no.122:
when, during a public show the order of equestrians asked him with insistence to revoke it, he
summoned the children of Germanicus, holding some of them near him & setting others on their
father’s knee; & in so doing he gave the demonstrators to understand through his affectionate gestures
and expressions that they should not object to imitating that young man’s example.
Papian Popaean law, AD 9
Altar of Augustan Peace/ Ara Pacis Augustae
Conclusioins
6
Roman Culture & Society, Lecture 3
7
RCS Lecture 3
AEC 10/12
Bibliography
Key readings

@Rawson, B. and Weaver, P., eds (1997) The Roman Family in Italy. Status,
Sentiment, Space, ch. 1 ‘Roman kinship: structure and sentiment’ – R. Saller

@Garnsey, P. and Saller, R. (1987) The Roman empire. Economy, Society and Culture,
ch. 7 ‘Family and household’ [DG 276.G2]
General reading

Dixon, S. (1992) The Roman Family [DG 91.D4]

@Fantham, E. et al (1994) Women in the Classical World , ch. 11 ‘Women, family, and
sexuality in the age of Augustus and the Julio-Claudians’ [DE 61.W6]

Harlow, M. (2008) 'Roman society' in Roman Europe, ed. E. Bispham [on order]

Kleiner, D.E.E. and Matheson, S.B., eds (1996), I Claudia. Women in ancient Rome,
esp. ‘Introduction’, ‘Women in Roman society’, ‘Representations of Roman women in
literature’, + catalogue entries [N 7588.I2]

Kleiner, D.E.E. and Matheson, S.B., eds (2000) I Claudia II: Women in Roman Art and
Society [N 7588.I2]

@Rawson, B., ed. (1986) The family in ancient Rome: new perspectives, ch. 1 ‘The
Roman family’, ch. 7 ‘Children in the Roman familia’ [DG 91.F2]

@Rawson, B. (1995) ‘From ‘daily life’ to demography’’, in Women in Antiquity, eds R.
Hawley and B. Levick [DE 61.W6]

Rawson, B. (2010) 'Family and society', in Barchiesi, A. and Scheidel, W., eds, The
Oxford Handbook of Roman Studies [DG 209.O94]

Rawson, B. ed. (2011) A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds [HF
8025.C6]
Sourcebooks

@Gardner, J.F. and Wiedemann, T. (1991) The Roman Household. A Sourcebook, ch. 1
‘Composition and definition’; ch. 2 ‘The household as a focus of emotion’; ch. 3 ‘Ideals and
anxieites’; ch. 5 ‘The life-cycle; ch. 6 ‘Inheritance’ [DG 90.G2]

@Lefkowitz, M.R. and Fant, M.B. (1992) Women’s Life in Greece and Rome. A
sourcebook in translation (2nd edn) [DE 61.W6] - online version

@Parkin, T. & Pomeroy, A. (2007) Roman Social History. A Sourcebook [DG 78.R6 + ebook]

Rowlandson, J. (1998) Women and society in Greek and Roman Egypt: a sourcebook
[DT 62.W6]

Shelton, J-A. (1998) As the Romans Did. A Sourcebook in Roman Social History (2nd
ed.), ch. 2 ‘Families’; ch. 3 ‘Marriage’; ch. 4 ‘Housing and city life’ [DG 78.S4]
Further reading

Bradley, K. (1991) Discovering the Roman Family [DG 91.B7]

Carroll, M. (2006) Spirits of the Dead. Roman Funerary Commemoration in Western
Europe espec. chapter 7 [DG 103.C2]

Clarke, J.R. (1991) The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 BC-AD 250. Ritual, Space, and
Decoration [NA 324.C5]

@Cohen, A. and Rutter, J., eds (2007) Constructions of Childhood in Ancient Greece
and Italy – espec. Part VI [e-book]

@Corbier, M. (1991) 'Family behavior of the Roman aristocracy, 2nd century BC-3rd
century AD,' in S.B. Pomeroy, ed. Women's History and Ancient History 173-96 [DF
93.W6]
7
Roman Culture & Society, Lecture 3
8
RCS Lecture 3
AEC 10/12

Dasen, V. and Spath, T., eds (2010) Children, memory, and family identity in Roman
culture [DG 91.C55 + e-book]

Dixon, S. (1990) The Roman Mother [DG 91.D4]

@Frier, B.W. (1994) 'Natural fertility and family limitations', CPh 89: 318-23

Gardner, J.F. (1986) Women in Roman Law and Society [DG 91.G2]

@Gardner, J.F. (1998) Family and Familia in Roman Law and Life [DG 88.G2] Conclusion

@Golden, M. (1988) ‘Did the ancients care when their children died?’ G&R 35: 152-63

Hallett, J.P. (1984) Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society: Women and the Elite
Family [DG 91.H2]

@Harris, W.V. (1994) "Child-Exposure in the Roman Empire", JRS 84: 1-22

Huskinson, J. (1996) Roman Children’s Sarcophagi: their Decoration and its Social
Significance [NB 1810.H8]

Kertzer, D. and Saller, R. (1991) The family in Italy: from antiquity to the present [HC
8025.F2]

@Martin, D.B. (1996) ‘The construction of the ancient family: methodological
considerations’, JRS 86: 40-60

@Rawson, B. (1966) 'Family life among the lower classes at Rome in the first two
centuries of the Empire', Classical Philology 61: 71-83

@Rawson, B. (1974) ‘Roman concubinage and other de facto marriages’, TAPhA 104:
279-305

Rawson, B., ed. (1991) Marriage, Divorce, and Children in Ancient Rome [DG 19.M2]

@Rawson, B. (2003) Children and Childhood in Roman Italy [DG 91.R2] 'Relationships'
pp.210-68

@Rawson, B. and Weaver, P., eds (1997) The Roman Family in Italy. Status,
Sentiment, Space, ch. 1 ‘Roman kinship: structure and sentiment’ – R. Saller; ch. 7
‘Conflict in the Roman family’ – S. Dixon; ch. 9 ‘The iconography of Roman childhood’ – B.
Rawson and J. Huskinson; ch. 11 ‘Perceptions of domestic space in Roman Italy’ – L.
Nevett; ch. 12 ‘Repopulating the Roman House’ – M. George [DG 91.R6]

@Saller, R. (1987) ‘Men’s age at marriage and its consequences in the Roman family’,
ClPhil 82: 21-34

@Saller, R.P. (1994) Patriarchy, property and death in the Roman family chs. 1, 4
'Familia and domus', 5 [DG 91.S2]

@Saller, R.P. and B.D. Shaw (1984) 'Tombstones and Roman family relations in the
Principate: civilians, soldiers and slaves' JRS 74: 124-56

Scheidel, W. (2007) ‘Epigraphy and demography: birth, marriage, family, and death’
[available online for downloading from Social Science Research Network]

@Shaw, B. (1987) ‘The age of Roman girls at marriage: some reconsiderations’, JRS 77:
30-46

Treggiari, S. (1991) Roman Marriage [DG 91.T7]

@Veyne, P. (1987) 'The Roman Empire', in P. Ariès & G. Duby, eds. A History of Private
Life I 6-233 [HC 500.H4]

Wallace-Hadrill, A. (1994) Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum [DG 70.P7]

Wiedemann, T. (1989) Adults and Children in the Roman Empire [DG 91.W4]
Comparative studies

Ariès, P. (1996) Centuries of Childhood (new edn) [HC 8200.A7]

Kertzer, D. and Saller, R. (1991) The family in Italy: from antiquity to the present [HC
8025.F2]
8
Roman Culture & Society, Lecture 3