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  • 29 - Family and household

  • from PART Va - ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
  • Edited by Alan K. Bowman, University of Oxford, Peter Garnsey, University of Cambridge, Dominic Rathbone, King's College London
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    12 October 2000, pp 855-874

  • Summary

    In language and law the Roman family appears very different from the contemporary family: no word for the nuclear family unit, the nearly complete lifelong dependence of children on their pater, and the nearly complete independence of wife from husband. Domus was the word commonly used in classical discussions of family and household, but it, too, does not correspond with the contemporary primary meaning of 'family'. Roman law offered a means to allow fathers to entrust their wives with effective management of the patrimony by bequeathing the estate to their children but lifetime usufruct to their wives. For every kind of support offered by kin beyond the household, examples can be found of both agnatic and non-agnatic relatives providing it. Clearly, the Roman, propertied family differed from the family of the industrial age because of the drastically lower life expectancy, the importance of inherited property and the pervasive presence of slaves in the household.