Women_And_Family_In_The_Classical_World

Women And Family In The Classical World According to The Random House College Dictionary, family is defined as “any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts and cousins” (477). During the days of the classical world, the structures of family as well as the social roles of Roman women were different than how they have evolved today. During the time of the Roman Republic, women were controlled by the men in their lives, having no rights of their own (The Roman Family). In their lifetime, they went from obeying their father to obeying their husband. According to the law under Gaius, propter animi levitatem, or “’on account of the lightness of the mind’”, women of all ages were to be cared for by a guardian. Fortunately, by Constantine’s reign, this law no longer existed. Marriage with manus, or marriage where the wife is legally dependent on the husband, eventually became unpopular (Martin). Roman women were typically married off at the age of eighteen to bridegrooms considerably older than they were, approximately thirty years of age (Martin). During the time when marriage with manus was the social norm, women could not claim dower family, women, roman, children, during, paterfamilias, law, time, society, lives, woman, property, parents, marriage, household, home, father, classical, because, world, wife, upon, own, over, living, gods, empire, became, age, after, reign, one, much, martin, included