THE WORLD OF FAMILY

Detail of a family outing (full sarcophagus relief)

Although legally she, like the rest of the family, deferred to the patria potestas of the paterfamilias, the world of the family and its locus in the domus was the domain of the materfamilias, who wielded her not inconsiderable authority over it through honor and long-standing custom. Marriage and motherhood remained the defining roles for Roman women; there was no Latin word for a respectable female who never married. Her first priority was her role as perpetuator of the family line and progenitor of legitimate citizens; as such she was required to keep her honor intact and to raise children who would bring glory to the family and the state. She brought with her to her husband's home a distaff and spindle and on her wedding night was given by her husband the gifts of fire and water, symbols of her domestic responsibilities, with the expectation that she as matrona would manage and increase his household with her labors. While upper-class women had slaves to help with the weaving, cooking, cleaning, and rearing of children, her lower class counterparts did the same tasks with little assistance. The poorest families suffered from scarcity which forced some to expose or sell their children into slavery; most slaves lived materially better lives than the very poor but they were denied the status and comfort of marriage and family life, as their partner and children were the property of their master. The citizen family was the foundation on which the state was built, where children first learned by training and example from a stern mater the core cultural values of pietas (dutifulness, reverence), obsequium (respect, submission), affectio (relationship, caring). The elite Roman familia was an all-embracing term, including as it did kin (from the nuclear family through the gens), household members (slaves, liberti), properties and goods, and unrelated resident dependents; deaths in childbirth and battle, divorces, remarriages, and adoptions created complex familial patterns. Given the legally dependent status of women on male kin or guardians, an upper-class household might contain an inordinate number of women in a wide variety of relationships: mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, niece, granddaughter, ward. For further information about this topic, see the Companion bibliography and Images of Family below.

IMAGES of FAMILY

Family Outing: relief on a sarcophagus of two families (father, mother, baby) driving wagons in the countryside; in the center two children play with a goose and a wheeled scooter. Details: left family, right family. Rome, Baths of Diocletian Museum.

Mother and daughter in an alcove on a marble funerary relief; inscribed in Greek: "Mimia, too soon, farewell; Koartilla farewell." The mother wears native Mesopotamian costume; the daughter holds a wreath and wears fashionable Roman jewelry. Roman, from the Euphrates region of Syria, 70-100 CE. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.

Family in relief on a marble sarcophagus lid: the deceased's veiled wife sits at his head with her arm around him; her husband reclines on a lectus holding a codex; a framed ancestor bust is in the center behind him; a child/slave with a board game/abacus is at his feet. Capitoline Museums, Rome (Palazzo Nuovo).

Infant nursing at his mother's breast while his father looks on; detail of the marble sarcophagus relief depicting the life cycle of M. Cornelius Statius. Roman, 2nd century CE. Paris, Louvre Museum.

Mother on a fragmentary relief seated while nursing her infant before a temple; a male (her husband?) stands beside her and a veiled woman (priestess?) before her. Roman, imperial period. Rome, Vatican.

Infant bath: women surround and tend a child on this marble sarcophagus relief, depicting perhaps the childhood of Dionysus: left detail with maid and nurse. From a Greek Hellenistic original. Found at Nepi, Church of San Biagio, 2nd century CE. Rome: Capitoline Museums (Palazzo Nuovo).

Matrona: marble statue of a mother standing with her young daughter. 50-40 BCE. Rome: Museo Montemartini.

Wife and husband in iunctio dextrarum with a male child between them holding a dove on the funeral urn of the Decii; inscribed below each figure: A[uli] DECI SPINTHERIS, A[uli] DECI FELICIONIS, DECIAE SPENDUSAE. 98-117 CE. Rome: Museo Massimo (from Via Ostiensia).

Imperial family in marble relief on the southern side of the Ara Pacis on the day of consecration of the altar (4 July 13 BCE). Agrippa leads members of Augustus' family (veiled and garlanded Livia?) in procession. Child seeking attention from an adult. Although family members have been identified, many identifications are contested. Dedicated by the Senate on 30 January 9 BCE. Rome: Campus Martius.

Julia , daughter of Augustus on the reverse of a denarius of Augustus, shown with a laurel wreath above her head to celebrate her for establishing his dynasty; she is flanked by her two sons Gaius and Lucius. Inscription refers to the moneyer: C[aius] MARIUS C[aii] F[ilius] TRO[mentana tribu]. Mint of Rome, 13 BCE 13 BCE. Rome, Palazzo Massimo.

Livilla, daughter of Antonia and Drusus (son of Livia), wife of Drusus the Younger (son of emperor Tiberius), portrayed as Ceres on a cameo with her infants in commemoration of the birth of her twin sons. She wears attributes of the goddess (a fillet and a wreath of grain) in celebration of her fertility while one infant holds a cornucopia. Roman, 19 CE. Berlin, Altes Museum.

Seated Woman wearing a stola and pointing to her son wearing a toga and bulla. Her facial features and hairstyle resemble Agrippina the Younger (detail) and her son Nero. Roman, 1st century CE. Rome, Capitoline Museums (Palazzo Nuovo).

Orichalcum sestertius with a bust of Septimius Severus' mother, Julia Mamaea; inscription (partially worn): IVLIA MAMAEA AVGVSTA. Roman, 222-35 CE. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bronze nummus with a bust of the Emperor Constantine I 's mother Helena; inscription: FL[avia] HELENA AVGVSTA. Cyzicus, 324/5 CE. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Silver Distaff, an implement for holding wool or flax to spin into thread, a defining duty of the traditional materfamilias. Roman. From a tomb at Bursa, Asia Minor, early 1 century CE. London, British Museum.

Allia Potestas text in hexameter of a eulogy for a materfamilias on a terracotta plaque. Found on Via Pinciana, 2nd century CE. Rome, Baths of Diocletian Museum.

Matrona: reconstruction of the clothing worn by a married woman. She wears a a turquoise tunic beneath a white stola that is bound with a cingulum tied in a nodus Herculaneus; she is cloaked by a teal palla with which she may cover her hair and even face. From an image supplied by Judith Sebesta of a student in a course (late 1990's).

Family at dinner: restoration of the painted pediment from a family tomb monument from Neumagen, Germany. The men are reclining Roman-style, while the women sit in throne chairs. Trier, Landesmuseum.

All images are courtesy of the VRoma Project's Image Archive.