Editing Adoption in ancient Rome (section)

===The adoptee===
A close relative was preferred as the adoptee, and a ''paterfamilias'' might adopt a grandson, especially if the grandson's father was not in the line of succession. The grandson might be his daughter's son, or the ''pater'' might have removed the boy's father from succession by emancipating him.{{sfn|Corbier|1991|pp=67–68}} One common pattern in Roman adoption was for a woman's childless brother to adopt one of her sons.{{sfn|Treggiari|2019|p=147}}{{sfn|Lindsay| 2009|pp=161–164}} A brother or cousin on the father's side might relinquish ''potestas'' over a son to provide a childless man with an adoptive heir.{{sfn|Corbier|1991|p=68}} A ''pater'' who had no sons might adopt his daughter's husband to strengthen family lineage, but to avoid technical incest, he would first need to emancipate his daughter so that she was no longer legally a part of the family – the adoption would otherwise create a brother-sister relationship that Roman law regarded as ''consanguines'', the same as blood ties.{{sfn|Corbier|1991|p=69}} Adoption of a stepson from the wife's previous marriage was another strategy, if the stepson had no children; after adoption, his offspring would enter the line as grandchildren of the adopting ''paterfamilias''.{{sfn|Corbier|1991|pp=71–72}}

The adoptee did not have to be a relative. Romans placed a high value on the social bonds of friendship (''[[amicitia]]''),{{sfn|Corbier|1991|p=73}} and a childless man might adopt a friend or friend's son.{{sfn|Lindsay|2009|p=156}} Fostering was preferred to adopting children of "low" birth or unknown parentage, and in [[Roman Egypt]] it was unlawful to adopt a male foundling.{{sfn|Rawson|1986|pp=196, 200 n. 51, citing ''Gnomon of the Idios Logos'' 41, 107}} The ''paterfamilias'' generally transmitted his estate to an adoptee of his own rank, or the adoptee acquired the social rank of the adoptive family, with some exceptions.{{sfn|Corbier|1991|p=64}}

====The freedman adoptee====
Most often adoption would have been a lateral move or a modest boost to the adoptee's standing and wealth, but a [[Freedmen in ancient Rome|freedman]] could also be adopted. A slave might even be simultaneously [[Slavery in ancient Rome#Manumission|manumitted]] and adopted by his former master, who became both his patron ''([[Patronage in ancient Rome|patronus]])'' and his "father". The adoption of a freedman placed his property under the control of his new ''paterfamilias''; it no longer belonged to him, but it would return to him along with the rest of his inheritance. The choice of a freedman for adoption may have been motivated most often by gaining access to his resources rather than securing lineage.{{sfn|Lindsay|2009|p=134}}

In the [[Roman Republic|early Republic]], a freedman through adoption gained the same status as the freeborn citizen who freed him.{{sfn|Gardner|1989|pp=252 ''et passim''}}  By the time of [[Tiberius]], the adopted freedman was regarded as an unemancipated son in matters of family law but held only the rights of freedpersons otherwise.{{sfn|Gardner|1989|p=241}} Legislation that more closely regulated the varied statuses of ''liberti'' left the adoptee as a freedman who could not, for example, marry into the senatorial order even if he was adopted by a senator.{{sfn|Lindsay|2009|p=134}}