The duties and obligations of citizens have already been discussed in the chapter on government, so this chapter will consider the lives of some other groups of people who lived in Rome and in particular how some of the marginalized members of Roman society lived.
Rome was a male-dominated society that accorded the male head of a family, the paterfamilias ("father of the family"), enormous respect and power. He wielded pater potestas, "paternal power,” over all the members of his extended family, including adults, children, and slaves, and this power gave him nearly unlimited authority to control the lives of his family. In the most extreme example, a paterfamilias could even put to death his own children, and this was viewed as being within his proper rights. In addition, he arranged marriages for his children and could command them to divorce, he could sell members of his family into slavery, and he could order a newborn baby to be abandoned. Naturally, he exercised complete control over lesser familial matters as well. The father's role within the family was one of authority and decision making.
Women did not have equivalent legal status with men, but Roman mothers were still expected to be strong figures within the household, playing an important role in supervising the upbringing and education of children and maintaining the smooth daily running of the household. Above all, the Roman wife was expected to be self-effacing and to provide strong support for, but not any challenges to, the paterfamilias.
It is difficult to discern from the primary sources the emotional bonds that existed within Roman families. In the idealized portraits presented in literature, the mother and father appear as rather stern and remote figures, but sometimes glimpses emerge of warmer, more intimate relationships, as in a letter written by the orator Cicero in which he expresses deep grief over the death of a daughter (Cicero, Letter to Atticus 12.46).
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