THE ANCIENT ROME FAMILIES

The family was the most important thing for the Romans, it was the most important before all other obligations; such as civil, politic, and military obligations. The family was the way for transmission of moral character. The institution of the Roman family was strengthened by a healthiness, a solidarity, and a spirit of uprightness and self-restraint superior to that of perhaps all other ancient peoples. Roman families were very diverse. The Basis of Roman civil law was the familia, a group consisting of a head, the paterfamilias, and his descendants in the male line. Free members and slaves, all under the guardianship and control of the paterfamilias, were also part of the familia. Free members were the wives, unmarried children (biological and adopted) and other dependents. The members of the family had no voice in the Curiae, yet they were subject to its decisions and laws, as well as to the decisions made on the family level by the patriarch.