Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Family Law

once. The main difference from marriage seems to have been that any offspring born from the relationship were illegitimate (see the next section) and therefore not legally their father’s children.

Children

The most important facts about the legal position of children have already been treated in the discussion of patria potestas (Chapter 10). This section will take up some of the important remaining issues. In discussing patria potestas , we noted the largely unlimited power (in theory) of a father over the person and would-be property of his children in power. In this context, it is perhaps less surprising how little obligation a father (or, for that matter, a mother) had toward his or her child. Children were, as a matter of law, not that much different from slaves, though in practice they were normally treated far differently. There is no evidence of a parental obligation to support chil dren before the second century ad. But the most striking fact to a modern eye is probably the practice of infant exposure. If a father did not wish a newborn to be raised, he could order it to be cast out, whether to die or to be picked up by someone else and raised (typically as a slave). Suspected motives for this include doubts about paternity, rejection of disabled children, and financial difficulties (especially in the case of girls), but we have very little idea how common any of these motivations (or indeed the practice in general) was. It is clear, however,

181