The Roman
Family
Roman Family Life
 Rome during the time of its expansion was essentially run by a
few powerful and rich families.
 The network was not completely closed to outsiders, but it
certainly safeguarded the privileges and wealth of Rome’s
illustrious families like the Julians, the Claudians, or the Aemilii.
 As Rome expanded so did the network of wealth and privilege,
but it never extended as far as involving the masses of the
Roman Republic and later Empire.
 A system of patronage operated where the rich and prominent
offered protection to lower class Romans in exchange for votes.
What is wrong with the outfit?
The Right Outfit
The Roman Family
 Paterfamilias: Originally a land-owner, leader of the family, and
usually the oldest male.
 He had rights of live and death over the members of his family.
 The Roman matrona: respectable (at least in theory)
 Like the Greek oikos, the Roman family encompassed other relatives
(e.g. grandparents, single or widowed women), and slaves.
 The family dynamics are not very dissimilar from those of the Greek
family, but there are differences. Roman women could and did
participate in parties and symposia, they were more vain and
money/power was more important to them than it was for Greek
women.
Paterfamilias and adult son
The morals
 According to Juvenal, adultery was rife and the morals of the
upper classes very loose.
 Upper class women are accused of sleeping even with gladiators
and robust slaves.
 Childbirth was not high in their list of priorities, and this is why
Seneca, for example, is praising his mother for accepting the
damage of childbirth on the body and not preferring vanity as
the virtuous thing to do.
 Marriages among the upper classes were often conducted with
a view to political alliances.
The Gladiators
The Decadence
The Augustan legislation trying to
strengthen family life
 Augustus and many emperors afterwards were worried about
the numbers of Roman citizens.
 Rome needed men to lead the empire and those should come
from the good families of the empire.
 Adoption to some degree compensated, but still Rome needed
to preserve the family structure which had let to its greatness,
or that was the theory, at least.
 A moralizing propaganda was created by Augustus, intended to
promote allegedly traditional ideals of the Roman family.
The main laws

Lex Iulia de Maritandis Ordinibus (18 BC), Limited marriage across social class boundaries

Lex Iulia de Adulteriis Coercendis (17 BC) . This law punished adultery with banishment. The
two guilty parties were sent to different islands, and part of their property was confiscated.
Fathers were permitted to kill daughters and their partners in adultery. Husbands could kill
the partners under certain circumstances and were required to divorce adulterous wives.

Lex Papia Poppaea (9 CE)

(to encourage and strengthen marriage) is usually seen as an integral part of Augustus' Julian
Laws. The Lex Papia Poppaea also explicitly promoted offspring (within lawful marriage), thus
also discriminating against celibacy.

This legislation contributed to a change in morality during the first century, which with the
intervention of Christianity has had immense influence upon our civilization.