Thursday, September 25, 2008
Big Bad Dad
I cannot believe the amount of unlimited power the fathers or paterfamilias had within the household. To be able to kill your wife or children based on something that couldn't always be proved goes to show these men could conduct their lives nearly unchecked. If a wife was in bed with another man, it comes down to the husband's word against the wife's and we all know where that ended up, bye bye wife. Selling the children into slavery is a tiny step above killing them altogether. Although the men had so much power and control, it's surprising to me that the wives were viewed as high as they were. Wives having input and arranging the childrens' marriages is huge as marriage is the means by which the family name and wealth is continued. Then again, Big Bad Daddy comes in and takes control and ownership of any land, business, and wealth the new extension of the family has created. This is one aspect of Roman society that isn't missed by many, I'm sure.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
You know, it wasn't just the Romans who had such a policy against their women. Many other cultures practiced the same type of "judgements" against women during ancient history - including those you will find in the Bible. Women and children were mere possessions early on - in fact, our own laws in America reflected such beliefs up through the early 1900's. However, what I wonder is how many men (Romans) actually did kill their wives given they could.
Although Roman men were given quite a great deal of authority over their women and children, I doubt many of the Roman men seriously ended up killing their wives, and selling their children into slavery. I think there are modern court rulings within America that will be looked upon 2000 years from now which will set the future citizen back a bit. Moreover, there were probably just as many murders of the patriarchal male due to their ability to rule all of the families finances. I am sure this was more prone to cause murders (greed) then women sleeping with other men, I of course have absolutely NO proof to back this up, just an assumption.
Post a Comment