=The Roman Woman.=—­The Roman woman is never free.  As a young girl, she belongs to her father who chooses her husband for her; married, she comes under the power of her husband—­the jurisconsults say she is under his “manus,” i.e., she is in the same position as his daughter.  The woman always has a master who has the right of life and death over her.  And yet, she is never treated like a slave.  She is the equal in dignity of her husband; she is called the mother of the family (materfamilias) just as her husband is called the father of the family (paterfamilias).  She is the mistress in the house, as he is the master.  She gives orders to the slaves whom she charges with all the heavy tasks—­the grinding of the grain, the making of bread, and the cooking.  She sits in the seat of honor (the atrium), spins and weaves, apportions work to the slaves, watches the children, and directs the house.  She is not excluded from association with the men, like the Greek woman; she eats at the table with her husband, receives visitors, goes into town to dinner, appears at the public ceremonies, at the theatre, and even at the courts.  And still she is ordinarily uncultured; the Romans do not care to instruct their daughters; the quality which they most admire in woman is gravity, and on her tomb they write by way of eulogy, “She kept the house and spun linen.”

=The Children.=—­The Roman child belongs to the father like a piece of property.  The father has the right of exposing him in the street.  If he accepts the child, the latter is brought up at first in the house.  Girls remain here until marriage; they spin and weave under the supervision of their mother.  The boys walk to the fields with their father and exercise themselves in arms.  The Romans are not an artistic people; they require no more of their children than that they know how to read, write, and reckon; neither music nor poetry is taught them.  They are brought up to be sober, silent, modest in their demeanor, and obedient.

=The Father of the Family.=—­The master of the house was called by the Romans the father of the family.  The paterfamilias is at once the proprietor of the domain, the priest of the cult of the ancestors, and the sovereign of the family.  He reigns as master in his house.  He has the right of repudiating his wife, of rejecting his children, of selling them, and marrying them at his pleasure.  He can take for himself all that belongs to them, everything that his wife brings to him, and everything that his children gain; for neither the wife nor the children may be proprietors.  Finally he has over them all[116] the “right of life and death,” that is to say, he is their only judge.  If they commit crime, it is not the magistrate who punishes them, but the father of the family who condemns them.  One day (186 B.C.) the Roman Senate decreed the penalty of death for all those who had participated in the orgies of the cult of Bacchus.  The men were executed,