bedient.

=The Father of the Family.=--The master of the house was called by the
Romans the father of the family. The paterfamilias is at once the
proprietor of the domain, the priest of the cult of the ancestors, and
the sovereign of the family. He reigns as master in his house. He has
the right of repudiating his wife, of rejecting his children, of
selling them, and marrying them at his pleasure. He can take for
himself all that belongs to them, everything that his wife brings to
him, and everything that his children gain; for neither the wife nor
the children may be proprietors. Finally he has over them all[116] the
"right of life and death," that is to say, he is their only judge. If
they commit crime, it is not the magistrate who punishes them, but the
father of the family who condemns them. One day (186 B.C.) the Roman
Senate decreed the penalty of death for all those who had participated
in the orgies of the cult of Bacchus. The men were executed, but for
all the women who were discovered among the guilty, it was necessary
that the Senate should address itself to the fathers of families, and
it was these who condemned to death their wives or their daughters.
"The husband," said the elder Cato, "is the judge of the wife, he can
do with her as he will; if she has committed any fault, he chastises
her; if she has drunk wine, he condemns her; if she has been
unfaithful to him, he kills her." When Catiline conspired against the
Senate, a senator perceived that his own son had taken part in the
conspiracy; he had him arrested, judged him, and condemned him to
death.

The power of the father of the family endured as long as life; the son
was never freed from it. Even if he became consul, he remained subject
to the power of his father. When the father died, the sons became in
turn fathers of families. As for the wife, she could never attain
freedom; she fell under the power of the heir of her husband; she
could, then, become subject to her own son.

FOOTNOTES:

[110] A legend represents King Numa debating with Jupiter the terms of a
contract: "You will sacrifice a head to me?" says Jupiter. "Very well,"
says Numa, "the head of an onion that I shall take in my garden." "No,"
replies Jupiter, "but I want something that pertains to a man." "We will
give you then the tip of the hair." "But it must be alive." "Then we
will add to this a little fish." Jupiter laughed and consented to this.

[111] In Rome, as in Greece,