ABSTRACT
In the centuries of its greatest achievements, which laid the base for the future of European civilization, Rome absorbed as much Greek culture as it could, and the Roman father was another of its continuations. The horizon of Roman mythology lay in Greece, as we have seen with the Aeneid. Rome, indeed, wrote the continuation of Greek mythology, just as Christianity added the New Testament to the sacred scriptures of the Jews. It amplified Greece into a vast and complex society, pulling it into a framework of systematic jurisprudence: such things had never been seen before, and in a certain sense were not until recently to be seen again. Generalizations on the Roman world are hazardous, since it extended across much more than 1000 years and three continents. It is nonetheless clear that the Roman father was the pillar that established and maintained order, both public and private, and as such was quite different from the Greek father, who was relatively absent from the life of his family. The Roman father had the power of life and death over his children, not only until they came of age, but throughout their lives. Only at death did the father relinquish this extraordinary power. It was in the Roman world that the father reached the apex of his authority over his children, though not necessarily over his wife.
