The Roman Family—What Is It? What was a family for the Romans? Was a family a group of people related by birth, or by marriage, or by the fact that they lived together? For the Romans, the answer would include all of these. The basic Roman familia consisted of everyone, including slaves, who lived in a household. Within that household could be a variety of in-laws, more likely from the husband's family, but a wife on a rare occasion might bring her widowed mother or orphaned siblings to live with them as well. Familia, the Latin word from which the word "family" derives, therefore more accurately corresponds to the idea of a household, in which a nanny or housekeeper or a gardener might also be included, than to the modern word "family," which more often means people related by birth or by marriage, many of whom...