Lee, 'Patriarchy, Property and Death in the Roman family', Bryn Mawr Classical Review 9511
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/bmcr/bmcr-9511-lee-patriarchy

@@@@95.11.15, Saller, Patriarchy, Property and Death

Richard P. Saller, <i>Patriarchy, Property and Death in the Roman
family.</i> Cambridge: 1994. Pp. 249 + xiii. ISBN 0521-32603-6.
  Reviewed by A.D. Lee, Classics -- University of Wales

  The last decade or so has seen a remarkable upsurge of
interest in the study of the Roman family, which has now
established itself as a major subject area within Roman social
history.  One of the leading figures in this development has been
Richard Saller, responsible for a steady stream of important and
illuminating papers on various aspects of this field.  While the
titles of some of the chapters in the volume under review
resemble those of some of these earlier articles, and a number of
its paragraphs duplicate paragraphs from those articles, this
book is not a mere reprinting of them.  It is much more, and in a
variety of respects.

  First--to begin at the least consequential level--in those
chapters or sections of chapters which seem most obviously to
reproduce the original version, careful comparison shows that
apparently duplicate paragraphs have frequently been expanded by
the addition of a further sentence or more, or completely new
paragraphs have been inserted among the familiar, with a view to
strengthening the argument or pursuing its implications in a new
direction.  So, for example, S.'s discussion of the term <i>domus
</i>is further developed on p.82 by a new paragraph on the
<i>penus</i>, the 'stores' of the house.  Secondly, whole new
sections, while recognisable descendants of earlier work, have
nevertheless been written <i>de novo</i> so as to deploy new
arguments in combination with earlier ones--thus the discussion
of <i>patria potestas</i> in Chapter 5, or that of 'the whip and
discipline in the household' at pp.142-50 in Chapter 6.

  Thirdly, S. has provided a series of 'bridging' mechanisms
designed to integrate the more detailed arguments into a broader
overview of the Roman family.  Most chapters have a new
introduction and conclusion, the chapters are grouped into parts,
each also with an introduction, and the first and final chapters
present an introduction and conclusion to the volume as a whole. 
Fourthly, S. has taken the opportunity to incorporate the results
of significant new research by others (e.g., work on the Babatha
archive and David Johnston's study of trusts), and to respond to
criticisms of particular points in his own earlier papers (doing
so, it is worth adding, in a courteous style that is exemplary). 
Last but certainly not least, Chapter 8 comprises a previously
unpublished discussion of the important but neglected subject of
the guardianship of children.

  In short, then, this volume includes significant new material
(though much of it is secreted in the interstices of the text),
together with S.'s considered views on a range of subjects in the
light of a decade's reflection.  By and large, the passage of
time has not caused him to revise his original views
significantly, but even those long familiar with S.'s work will
want to see the ways in which he has developed and nuanced his
arguments, as well as reading the important new Chapter 8.

  Many of the features which distinguish S.'s work owe much to
the influence of his postgraduate training at Cambridge.  The
impact of successive Professors of Ancient History at that
institution is evident, firstly, in S.'s general interest in
social history and openness to interdisciplinary approaches--part
of the legacy of Moses Finley--and secondly, in S.'s appreciation
of the value and limitations of the legal sources as evidence for
Roman society, where his debt to the rather different style of
John Crook is apparent.  A third Cambridge presence is Peter
Laslett, whose work in establishing and maintaining the Cambridge
Group for the History of Population and Social Structure has done
so much to stimulate the study of the family in other periods of
history.

  Laslett's influence, and that of other members of the
Cambridge Group, is particularly evident in Part I (Chapters
2-3)--'Roman life course and kinship: biology and culture'--in
which S. sets out in a rigorous and sophisticated manner his
understanding of the demographic character of the Roman family. 
Accompanied by more than 20 pages of statistical tables based on
Roman epigraphic data and on model life-tables--enough to daunt
any traditionally-trained ancient historian--these chapters do
not always make for easy reading, despite the clarity of
exposition, and may deter the less persistent reader from
progressing into the much more accessible subject matter of Parts
II and III.  This is not to question the need for these
demographic chapters, or their placement near the beginning--many
of the arguments later in the volume presuppose the conclusions
of this part.  Moreover in a book which is pitched not just at
ancient historians, but also at scholars working on the history
of the family in other societies and periods--it is published in
the series 'Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society
in Past Time'--it was clearly important for S. to establish his
demographic credentials with this latter group.  Nevertheless, I
wonder whether it might not have been advisable to relegate the
majority of the tables to an appendix, even at the expense of
hampering cross-reference between text and tables.  At any rate,
those ancient historians without the stomach for demography can
perhaps afford to skim through Part I.  Parts II and III, on the
other hand, should be required reading for anyone interested in
Roman social history and how to write it.

  Part II, entitled 'Roman family and culture: definitions and
norms', begins with a chapter (4) on '<i>Familia</i> and
<i>domus</i>: defining and representing the Roman family and
household'.  The first three-quarters follows the text of S.'s
1984 <i>Phoenix</i> article on the same subject fairly closely,
providing a wide-ranging discussion of the Latin terminology
pertaining to family and household, but in addition to smaller
refinements and revisions, he has now added to it a concluding
section (pp.95-101) which brings to bear more fully the results
of his joint-article with Brent Shaw on tombstones and family
relations which appeared in <i>Journal of Roman Studies</i> in
the same year.  This defends their emphasis on the fundamental
significance of the husband-wife-children triad in the Roman
conception of the family against the view of Keith Bradley that
the frequency of divorce and remarriage and the ubiquity of
slaves in elite households must have diluted the strength and
significance of such bonds.

  Chapters 5 ('<i>Pietas</i> and <i>patria potestas</i>:
obligation and power in the Roman household') and 6 ('Whips and
words: discipline and punishment in the Roman household') focus
on paternal power, a subject on which S. has made some of his
most important contributions.  The first half of Chapter 5
restates S.'s argument that <i>pietas</i> was not a virtue
associated solely with filial obedience in the Roman mind, but
was also an ideal appropriate to parents in their dealings with
children and one which encompassed a broader sense of
affectionate devotion.  Although the text is close to that of his
1988 paper on the subject, it is particularly valuable to have it
presented here since the original version appeared in a
<i>Festschrift</i> published in Germany and not easily accessible
to many.  The second half of this chapter deals with <i>patria
potestas</i>.  The text here is new, as are some of the aspects
discussed, but the underlying thrust remains the same--a firm and
persuasive rebuttal of the notion that the extensive legal rights
of the Roman <i>paterfamilias</i> reflected social reality.  In
this respect the first word in the title of the book might be
potentially misleading, since it is one of S.'s fundamental
contentions that the patriarchal character of the Roman family
has in fact been over-emphasised.  At any rate, this is one of
the points where the demographic analysis of Part I assumes
particular importance, since S.'s deductions about Roman
mortality and the age at marriage of Roman men mean that a
significant proportion of fathers will have died by the time
their sons reached adulthood and the wide-ranging legal powers of
the <i>paterfamilias</i> will simply not have been an issue for
them.  For those whose fathers were still alive, literary and
legal sources indicate a variety of mechanisms by which tensions
might be diffused.  Chapter 6 pursues these themes further in
relation to the specific issue of corporal punishment in the
household, where S. argues very cogently that the Romans drew a
clear distinction between the treatment appropriate to children
and to slaves.

  Part III ('The devolution of property in the Roman family')
focuses on various aspects of inheritance.  Chapter 7
('Strategies of succession in Roman families') provides an
admirably clear overview of the subject as a whole, from which S.
reaches the important conclusion that "written instruments were
used, for the most part, by Roman men and women to gain not
<i>freedom from</i> familial obligations so much as <i>freedom
to</i> design an individual strategy to meet both their own
personal circumstances and the general conditions of
unpredictable mortality and shifting family bonds" (pp.178-9). 
Chapter 8 ('Guardianship of Roman children') is an invaluable
treatment of a neglected aspect of Roman family history in its
own right, but it is also a powerful illustration of the way
attention to demographic questions can open up fresh perspectives
on the significance of legal and other evidence.  In this case,
S. suggests that perhaps as many as one-third of Roman children
were orphans, so that guardianship of children assumes a
previously unsuspected importance, not only with regard to family
life but also for the fundamental character of the Roman economy:
"any account of economic decision-making in the empire should
take account of the fact that a substantial fraction of the
property was owned by children and managed by guardians whose
primary aim is likely to have been protecting themselves from
legal liability through conservative management, rather than
optimizing profits" (p.229).

  Chapter 9 ('Dowries and daughters in Rome') resumes the
subject of another of S.'s 1984 papers, this time published in
<i>Classical Quarterly</i>.  S. here restates in revised form the
essential arguments of that earlier paper--that Roman dowries
were typically moderate in size, designed to provide for the
daughter's maintenance in the marital household rather than
giving her her full share of the paternal estate, and that this
practice reflected the frequency of divorce and remarriage in
Roman society.  In doing so, S. has substantially rewritten the
text to take account of criticisms of the earlier version,
particularly on the part of Susan Treggiari, to which he responds
in a measured but effective manner.  He then goes on to extend
the scope of his investigation by exploring the wider
implications of dowry for the independence of Roman woman,
suggesting that in certain circumstances a woman's control over
her dowry potentially gave her an important degree of leverage
against her husband.

  Finally, the Conclusion (pp.225-32) integrates the key
arguments of the different chapters into a clear statement of
S.'s broader understanding of the dynamics of the Roman family. 
It is an understanding which rejects simplistic generalisations,
particularly about the role of the Roman father, in favour of a
more subtle analysis based on recognition of "the complex
interplay of demographic variables, a wide array of legal
options, and mutual social obligations" (p.231).  Herein lies the
strength of S.'s work in this field.

  The volume has been well copy-edited.  I noted only one
typographical error, on p.213 where Oxyrhynchus has been
misspelt.  Also, S.'s original article on dowry is referred to at
p.204 n.2 but the full reference is missing from the
bibliography.  Very occasionally, the volume perhaps takes a
little too much for granted on the part of different readers.  S.
obviously hopes, and rightly so, that it will find an audience
among those researching the family in other contexts, but those
without any classical background may experience frustration with
the occasional Latin phrase which has been left untranslated
(e.g., top of p.183), and may remain somewhat unsure about the
meaning of marriage <i>sine manu</i> until they reach the
explicit definition offered on p.207.  As for classicists, I
would imagine that many are likely to be mystified concerning the
'[demographic] transition' to which reference is made a number of
times.  A glossary of technical terms, both legal and
demographic, would be a helpful addition in any subsequent
reprinting.

  This is a very important book, both for its substantive
conclusions and for the sophisticated, multi-faceted methodology
by which it arrives at them.  Its publication has enabled S. to
present his work on various aspects of the Roman family in an
integrated fashion, in turn enabling us to appreciate just how
significant a contribution S. has made to our understanding of
the subject over the past decade.