The Study On Ancient Roman Family

The late republic and the early empire is an important transitional period in Roman history. During this period, it is not only related to the transition of Roman regime, but also involved in the great changes of Roman economy, culture, social life and etc. This paper fixes the family of the late republic and the early empire as research object and attempts to discuss the varieties and influences of the family structure and function, the family size, the marital type, and the female status in family based on the analysis of patriarchy. Meanwhile, through the family study of this special stage the paper rationalizes the changes of inner structure and exterior background of the family and enables us to further understand the current conditions of transitional period of ancient Rome and tendency of the empire destiny. Moreover, it elaborates how the family, as the basic unit of society, interacts with the individual and nation."patriarchy"is not only a most important feature of ancient Roman family , but also a basic institution in Roman society. Therefore, patriarchy will be a main skeleton running through my paper.This paper consists of four chapters. The first chapter begins from the definition of ancient Roman family, analyzes the two family characteristics and then clarifies what members form the ancient Roman family. I endeavor to explore the evolution of two terms from familia to domus to illustrate great social changes. Also, this chapter emphasizes the family function and the new emerging features, which are reflected in the weakening patriarchy, change of marital type and waning of manus authority and the transition of family size from the extended family to the nuclear one.Chapter two tries to deal with Roman marital system in detail and points out that during this period great changes have taken place in marital procedures, types and situations as well. In order to enlarge the citizenship, the empire improves the legal status of female, encourages the women's fertility and unfastens the matrimonial taboos, which results in intermarriages transcending consanguinity and class status. This means that the family institutions, family criterions and traditional civil system based on the patriarchy have been strongly impacted. However, in terms of marital purpose, it still aims to provide and nourish children and pass on the legal descendants for country.The third one moves to the relationship and its changes of family members and focuses on the analysis of conjugal relation and parental relation with children. The government establishes the laws the first time so as to put up the family and conjugal orders and stop grievous adultery. The relatively waning of patriarchy brings the new variation of paternity, that is, sons'rights and affection have been paid much attention. In comparison, mother-son relation changes even much more with the development of their financial condition and heritage laws. These changes make the mother-son relation more complex and delicate, and now economic factor must be taken into consideration when evaluating the mother-son relation.The last chapter emphasizes the improvement of female status and explores the transition of their traditional roles from the family realm to the public field. From the point of the female and procreation, the paper draws a conclusion that whatever improvement in female's status, women's fertility has always been placed the first order in the paternal society.This paper attempts to reflect the ancient Rome through the evolution of family institutions focused on the patriarchy. Meanwhile, the study based on the mutual influences among individual, family and nation aims to illustrate the process how Rome centers on the law-making and law-issuring through a series of institution construction and finally actualizes the transition from the republic to the empire and enables us to understand the society and culture of ancient Rome more comprehensively.