Editing Women in ancient Rome (section)

==Women in the family and law==

===Always a daughter===
{{See also|Pater familias}}
Both daughters and sons were subject to ''[[patria potestas]]'', the power wielded by their father as head of household (''familia''). A Roman household was considered a collective (''corpus'', a "body") over which the ''pater familias'' had mastery (''dominium''). Slaves, who had no legal standing, were part of the household as property. In the early Empire, the legal standing of daughters differed little if at all from that of sons.<ref>Frier, ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'', pp. 19–20.</ref> If the father died without a will, the right of a daughter to share in the family property was equal to that of a son, though legislation in the 2nd century BCE had attempted to limit this right. Even apart from legal status, daughters seem no less esteemed within the Roman family than sons, though sons were expected to ensure family standing by following their fathers into public life.<ref>Beryl Rawson, "The Roman Family," in ''The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives'' (Cornell University Press, 1986), p. 18.</ref>

[[File:Cremona, museo civico, ritrattuo femminile, primi decenni del iii secolo d.c..JPG|thumb|upright|left|Bust of a Roman girl, early 3rd century]]
The ''pater familias'' had the right and duty to find a husband for his daughter,<ref>Frier, ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'', p. 66.</ref> and first marriages were normally arranged. Technically, the couple had to be old enough to consent, but the age of consent was 12 for girls and 14 for boys. However, in practice boys seem to have been on average five years older. Among the elite, 14 was the age of transition from childhood to adolescence,<ref>[[John Crook (classicist)|J.A. Crook]], ''Law and Life of Rome 90B.C.-212 A.D.''</ref> but a [[betrothal]] might be arranged for political reasons when the couple were too young to marry.<ref name="Beryl Rawson 1999 p. 21"/> In general, [[noble women]] married younger than women of the lower classes. Most Roman women would have married in their late teens to early twenties. An aristocratic girl was expected to be a virgin when she married, as her young age might indicate.<ref>Judith P. Hallett, ''Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society: Women and the Elite Family'' (Princeton University Press, 1984), 142.</ref> A daughter could legitimately refuse a match made by her parents only by showing that the proposed husband was of bad character.<ref>Rawson, "The Roman Family", p. 21.</ref>

In the [[Roman Republic#Early Republic (458 BCE - 274 BCE)|early Republic]], the bride became subject to her husband's ''potestas'', but to a lesser degree than their children.<ref>Bruce W. Frier and Thomas A.J. McGinn, ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'' (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 20.</ref> By the early Empire, however, a daughter's legal relationship to her father remained unchanged when she married, even though she moved into her husband's home.<ref name="McGinn, pp. 19">Frier and McGinn, ''Casebook'', pp. 19–20.</ref> This arrangement was one of the factors in the degree of independence Roman women enjoyed relative to those of many other ancient cultures and up to the early modern period. Although a Roman woman had to answer to her father legally, she did not conduct her daily life under his direct scrutiny,<ref>"If adults sons or daughters and their children had lived in the same household as the ''paterfamilias''," notes Rawson, "they may well have found the constant awareness of his powers and position a great strain" ("The Roman Family," p. 15).</ref> and her husband had no legal power over her.<ref name="McGinn, pp. 19"/>
[[File:Wall painting - mistress and three maids - Herculaneum (insula orientalis II - palaestra - room III) - Napoli MAN 9022.jpg|thumb|Dressing of a priestess or bride, Roman fresco from [[Herculaneum]], Italy (1–79 AD)]]

A daughter was expected to be deferential toward her father and to remain loyal to him, even if it meant having to disagree with her husband's actions.<ref>Hallett, 139.</ref> For some, "deference" was not always absolute. After arranging his daughter's first two marriages, [[Cicero]] disapproved—rightly, as it turned out—of her choice to marry the unreliable [[Publius Cornelius Dolabella (consul 44 BC)|Dolabella]], but found himself unable to prevent it.<ref>Rawson, ''The Roman Family'', p. 21.</ref>

A daughter kept her own [[Naming conventions for women in ancient Rome|family name]] (''nomen'') for life, not assuming that of her husband. Children usually took the father's name. In the Imperial period, however, children might sometimes make their mother's family name part of theirs, or even adopt it instead.<ref>Rawson, "The Roman Family," p. 18.</ref>