The Original Constitution of Rome The Roman House Father and mother, sons and daughters, home and homestead, servants and chattels--such are the natural elements constituting the household in all cases, where polygamy has not obliterated the distinctive position of the mother.

But the nations that have been most susceptible of culture have diverged widely from each other in their conception and treatment of the natural distinctions which the household thus presents.

By some they have been apprehended and wrought out more profoundly, by others more superficially; by some more under their moral, by others more under their legal aspects.

None has equalled the Roman in the simple but inexorable embodiment in law of the principles pointed out by nature herself.
The House-father and His Household The family formed an unity.

It consisted of the free man who upon his father's death had become his own master, and the spouse whom the priests by the ceremony of the sacred salted cake (-confarreatio-) had solemnly wedded to share with him water and fire, with their son and sons' sons and the lawful wives of these, and their unmarried daughters and sons' daughters, along with all goods and substance pertaining to any of its members.