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A Roman family group represented on a tomb. The Romans liked to represent themselves to posterity as good family and loyal to each other and the state. The family was the life blood of the Roman world! From such stock good soldiers and administrators came. Men who fathered three children and more were given extra benefits by the state. |
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The Roman family was the centre of Roman life.
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Above we see the family attending the dedication to a family god. Religion in Rome was highly important and to the faithful every bit as real as modern Christianity, Islam or Hinduism. The Roman gods were mostly human in form but hundreds of invisible spirits populated the countryside, rivers and trees. Romans spent much time placating these and saying prayers against ill omens. In short they were very superstitious as a people. |
The family of Augustus gather for a state sacrifice. The Imperial family founded by Augustus was meant to be an example to all in the 'restored respublica' after the Battle of Actium in 31BC.
Roman women were more free in Roman Society but still had far less freedom than modern empanciated counterparts.
The Paterfamilias was the head of the household: not just his own immediate family but the extended one as well, including slaves and freedmen.
Roman matrons like this were the backbone of the traditional Roman family. The Romans were very far from the sexed obsessed people the film and cinema like to portray. In fact one academic compared them to 'late Victorian English'. They were rather prudish and an adulterer was regarded as unmanly and effeminate, while a good family man and soldier was virtus or 'a man of good solid character!'
The Paterfamilias was head of the extended family as well. In the days of the Rrepublic a father could decide if a child would live or die......By the Imperial period,. much power of the father had diminished as women sought more amenable forms of marriage than those like Confarreatio, traditionally made between upper class bride and groom and from which divorce was nigh impossible. By the late Republic women, especially if rich had gained in influence and freedom. Some even used their wiles to influence politicians like Caesar who had the famous Servilia as a mistress.
