Unit 02: Family Life and Marriage (ATRD pp. 16-58)
Contents and layout ©1999 Joseph J. Hughes, Ph.D.
Revised 09 November 2000
mos maiorum matrona
paterfamilias Claudia
patria potestas Lesbia
matrimonium pietas
I. Importance of the mos maiorum
A. thought of as what made Rome great
1. adherence to the good old ways of the good old days
2. work ethic, moral and physical courage
a. we're all still subsistence farmers at heart
b. and soldiers in the second place
3. simplicity and practicality
4. respect for one's betters: pietas
a. Dad and Mom
b. Jupiter
c. Elected officials
B. thought of as the best of all moral guides
1. respect for authority
a. appeal to examples of famous Romans as models
b. obey your elders
c. obey your betters
2. strictly defined societal boundaries
a. know your place
b. stay in your place
C. more practicable in theory than in reality
1. never written down per se
2. became heavily idealized
a. just like today
b. "the world is going to hell in a handbasket"
c. Bias crimes ordinance?
3. quite open to interpretation, sometimes quite subjective
a. Everybody "knows" what it means
b. Tougher to articulate
D. Tension makes a tangle: mos maiorum and Rome's rise to greatness
1. certain tension: mos maiorum vs. necessary adaptation and change
a. sticking to ancient values a sign of Rome's greatness
b. knowing how and when to deviate also a sign
2. sometimes the right one won
a. obedience to authority and the collective made Rome great
b. assimilating Greex and other cultures' literature, art, medicine
3. sometimes the wrong one did
a. Republic lasted at least a century too long; 7 civil wars resulted
b. not everything the Romans borrowed from other cvltures was good
4. Romans usually judicious in balancing the two
a. to me, this is the greatest part of the Romans' genius
b. USA usually pretty good at this too
II. The nuclear family in Rome
A. role of the paterfamilias
1. patria potestas: supreme rule over family
a. absolute power over wife
b. absolute power to rule children
1). expose them at birth (legal until 374 AD)
2). sell them into slavery
3). put them to death
4). arrange marriages for them
5). order them divorced
c. in charge of family worship
2. actual fathers, of course, were more loving, etc.
3. under patria potestas until your father dies
a. age and mental condition have nothing to do with it
b. the mos maiorum at work
4. patria potestas implicit throughout Roman life
a. Roman religion
b. Roman government
c. Roman foreign relations
d. Roman interrelationships
B. role of the matrona
1. subordinate to husband
a. support husband in all of his endeavors
1). unquestioningly: husband is the boss
2). good times and especially bad
b. bear lots of fine Roman children
1). especially boys, of course
2). may wear stola after becoming a mother of three
3). later on, other rewards given to multiple mothers
2. devoted to nurturing of family
a. food
b. clothing
c. education
1). in earliest Rome, home education sole responsibilty of matrona
2). later parceled out to surrogates (paedagogus )
3. wealthier women did not bring up their kids
a. wanted to pursue their own goals
b. nurses and tutors of various sorts appointed
C. treatment of children
1. "raised" by father after birth
2. respective valuation
a. male more valued
b. females sometimes exposed
D. raising of families
1. fertility of women a major concern
a. Women = have babies
b. infertility grounds for divorce
2. adoption often practiced
a. can't bear kids? buy one
b. good at breeding kids? Sell one
3. contraception and abortion practiced
a. since dawn of time
b. some methods rather silly
III. Marriage
A. circumstances of marriage
1. more often arranged than a romantic match
a. propagation of family unit
b. sometimes for political or other advantage
c. often looked at as a business agreement
d. ius conubium: right to have a Roman marriage
e. various different flavors
2. ages of couples
a. girls: usually after puberty: twelve?
b. boys: sixteen or seventeen, eventually down to 14
c. sometimes marriages delayed
1). long engagement period
2). wait to consummate marriage
d. dos or dowry given if at all possible
1). not mandatory, but included in mos maiorum
2). property of husband at first
3). could be returned to wife after divorce
3. typical Roman wedding ceremony
a. fancy clothing for bride and groom
b. ceremony, more or less elaborate
1). spilling of grain
2). marriage contract and witnesses
c. wedding feast
d. procession of bride to groom's house
1). throwing of nuts and stuff for fertility
2). groom carries bride over threshold
e. bride formally led to bedchamber
B. types of marriage
1. legal forms
a. manus: earliest form
1). woman is transferred to her husband's family
a). becomes legally as a sister to her hubby
b). patria potestas still applies
2). all of her property becomes hubby's
a). she can't have any control over it
b). her family can't have it back if she dies
c). the mos maiorum in action
3). eventually fell out of favor
a). women not happy with it, to say the least
b). Romans could bend the mos maiorum a bit here and there
c). still practiced by ancient, prestigious families
b. marriage sine manu (a/k/a connubium )
1). woman remains in control of her own fortune
2). woman remains in her original patria potestas
3). much easier to get a divorce
2. common-law
a. concubinatus
1). couple lives together without benefit of marriage
2). man could originally have more than one
3). analogy: common-law marriage?
b. masters could have sex with female slaves but not marry them
1). the old double standard again
2). women wouldn't even think of it
C. roles of husband and wife
1. mos maiorum applied
a. Claudia, the perfect wife
b. wife battered for drinking
2. sometimes genuinely romantic
a. love of Pompeius Catussa for Blandinia Martiola
b. love of Furia Spes for husband
D. divorce laws
1. divorce easier than in modern times
a. simple announcement of intent
b. some legal niceties
1). return the dowry
2). wriggle out of marriage in manu
2. reasons for divorce
a. political expedience (in upper classes)
b. infertility
3. adultery not entirely frowned upon
a. always permitted to men
b. women got away with it, altho illegal
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