登陆注册
15752600000040

第40章

It is to be regretted that a chasm which exists in its historycannot be more completely filled. So far as regards the person,the parent, when our information commences, has over his childrenthe jus vitae necisque, the power of life and death, and afortiori of uncontrolled corporal chastisement; he can modifytheir personal condition at pleasure; he can give a wife to hisson; he can give his daughter in marriage; he can divorce hischildren of either sex; he can transfer them to another family byadoption; and he can sell them. Late in the Imperial period wefind vestiges of all these powers, but they are reduced withinvery narrow limits. The unqualified right of domesticchastisement has become a right of bringing domestic offencesunder the cognisance of the civil magistrate; the privilege ofdictating marriage has declined into a conditional veto; theliberty of selling has been virtually abolished, and adoptionitself, destined to lose almost all its ancient importance in thereformed system of Justinian, can no longer be effected withoutthe assent of the child transferred to the adoptive parentage. Inshort, we are brought very close to the verge of the ideas whichhave at length prevailed in the modern world. But between thesewidely distant epochs there is an interval of obscurity, and wecan only guess at the causes which permitted the Patria Potestasto last as long as it did by rendering it more tolerable than itappears. The active discharge of the most important among theduties which the son owed to the state must have tempered theauthority of his parent if they did not annul it. We can readilypersuade ourselves that the paternal despotism could not bebrought into play without great scandal against a man of full ageoccupying a high civil office. During the earlier history,however, such cases of practical emancipation would be rarecompared with those which must have been created by the constantwars of the Roman republic. The military tribune and the privatesoldier who were in the field three-quarters of a year during theearlier contests, at a later period the proconsul in charge of aprovince, and the legionaries who occupied it, cannot have hadpractical reason to regard themselves as the slaves of a despoticmaster; and all these avenues of escape tended constantly tomultiply themselves. Victories led to conquests, conquests tooccupations; the mode of occupation by colonies was exchanged forthe system of occupying provinces by standing armies. Each stepin advance was a call for the expatriation of more Roman citizensand a fresh draft on the blood of the failing Latin race. We mayinfer, I think, that a strong sentiment in favour of therelaxation of the Patria Potestas had become fixed by the timethat the pacification of the world commenced on the establishmentof the Empire. The first serious blows at the ancient institutionare attributed to the earlier Caesars, and some isolatedinterferences of Trajan and Hadrian seem to have prepared theground for a series of express enactments which, though we cannotalways determine their dates, we know to have limited thefather's powers on the one hand, and on the other to havemultiplied facilities for their voluntary surrender. The oldermode of getting rid of the Potestas, by effecting a triple saleof the son's person, is evidence, I may remark, of a very earlyfeeling against the unnecessary prolongation of the powers. Therule which declared that the son should be free after having beenthree times sold by his father seems to have been originallymeant to entail penal consequences on a practice which revoltedeven the imperfect morality of the primitive Roman. But evenbefore the publication of the Twelve Tables it had been turned,by the ingenuity of the jurisconsults, into an expedient fordestroying the parental authority wherever the father desiredthat it should cease.

Many of the causes which helped to mitigate the stringency ofthe father's power over the persons of his children are doubtlessamong those which do not lie upon the face of history. We cannottell how far public opinion may have paralysed an authority whichthe law conferred, or how far natural affection may have renderedit endurable. But though the powers over the person may have beenlatterly nominal, the whole tenour of the extant Romanjurisprudence suggests that the father's rights over the son'sproperty were always exercised without scruple to the full extentto which they were sanctioned by law. There is nothing toastonish us in the latitude of these rights when they first showthemselves. The ancient law of Rome forbade the Children underPower to hold property apart from their parent, or (we shouldrather say) never contemplated the possibility of their claiminga separate ownership. The father was entitled to take the wholeof the son's acquisitions, and to enjoy the benefit of hiscontracts; without being entangled in any compensating liability.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 穷途末路之生存

    穷途末路之生存

    国外是行尸走肉,国内只能穷途末路,面对灾难,不屈的生存
  • 温城往事

    温城往事

    最后,我们都不再非谁不可,就只是带着曾经的回忆,往各自的方向远去……谢谢你,喜欢过我。
  • 先婚后爱,甜妻太迷人

    先婚后爱,甜妻太迷人

    一场算计,她与未婚夫的叔叔春风一度,从此,他便对她纠缠不清。“小叔叔,我们有代沟,没法交流。”“代沟?”男人邪肆的将她囚禁在怀里,“今晚再深一点,负距离交流。”温暖脸红了,又黑了,“滚!”没有苏慕城之前,温暖是穷屌丝,只有被欺负的份。有了苏慕城后,温暖便多了一只神助攻,外加随叫随到的忠犬男。只是,“小叔叔,她们说我没用,只能靠你。”男人冷眸一扫,“解决你们,根本不用我家宝贝出手。”(此文是宠文宠文宠文,重要的事情说三遍,只有更宠,没有最宠,前期包子君不会建群哦!想要联系包子的可以关注包子的新浪微博“包子有馅才好吃”)
  • 小宝的婚事

    小宝的婚事

    一对青年男女在不知情的情况下由双方父母特意撮合而结了婚。但这场婚姻是一个悲剧。但由于女主人的宽容使大家能够和睦相处。
  • 穿越之农家巧女

    穿越之农家巧女

    三流大学的本科生,灵魂穿到面黄肌瘦,二个萌宝的姐姐身体中,锅里面跑来跑去的老鼠,岌岌可危的房梁,赵瑶励志要通过21世纪的头脑让萌宝吃香喝辣。“首富儿子要娶她?姐不稀罕,钱姐可以自己赚。”“摄政王要娶她???前提你得暖的了床,上的了厅堂。”
  • 王者弑天

    王者弑天

    修炼灵骨的世界,血雨腥风;寻找至尊的足迹,尸山血海;打破一切禁咒,解读天地终极奥义……身具至尊灵骨,成就无上至尊,我欲封天!
  • 铃屋

    铃屋

    千百年来不断变换的继承人,为的是继承那流传千年的魂铃还是那迂回曲折的故事。一个个平凡的女孩却有着不平凡的故事,而铃屋并非创造什么千古神话,只为让不平凡变为平凡。生于乱世之年,难安乐。存于安乐之年,难两全。那续存已久的平凡力量终究有何用处,是被欲望所控还是为维持安乐享乱世之安。白银,玄青,古铜,黄金。铃与内修,练的不是内修而是只为守护而生的凡铃。十烬,百灭,千骨,万枯。乃浮生大错之分,万念俱灰,一次次的大错,却为何换不来醒悟。故事开篇——
  • 网游之末日游龙

    网游之末日游龙

    江浩在击败了对手夺得神魔时代第一高手的荣耀时刻,却被神秘代码从游戏中劫持到了一个和游戏设定极为相似的世界之中。原本已经接受现实的他,正准备一展所长,在这个世界打下一片属于自己的天空,却发现这个世界竟然有着他曾经的痕迹……是阴谋还是奇遇?是拯救还是灭亡?摆脱命运的束缚,由我带你前行……
  • 王爷别嚣张:弃妃很拽很轻狂

    王爷别嚣张:弃妃很拽很轻狂

    她穿越到天朝国,一觉醒来,竟是被自己的丈夫关在肮脏的水牢内三天三夜。他是天朝国的贤王爷,却是一个冷酷无情的冰山男。讽刺的是,对他的小妾可是柔情似水,万般宠爱,视为珍宝。她觉得他傻,明明知道自己的爱妾心属他人,却如此痴情。为了巩固兄长的政权,他娶了她,只为了铲除她父亲的政党。她知道自己在他的心里只是一颗棋子,有用之时,对她相敬如宾,无用之时,对她冷酷无情。她不想这一穿,竟成了弃妇。她是来自二十一世纪的魂魄,绝不委屈求全于他的银威之下,她要活得有尊严。逃出他的魔爪,是她的唯一目标。他说,今生今世,你只是本王的一颗棋子,若是安分,他保她性命,若是背叛他,死。缘分弄人,他深爱的小妾离奇死亡,他竟然冤枉是她害死。他说,我不会杀了你,我要让你活着比死了还要痛苦千万倍,用你的痛苦祭奠爱妾的亡魂。她冤,有口难辩。她恼道,你大爷的,死了妾就找我问罪,你哪只眼睛看见我害死她的?他为了折磨她,不惜一切代价。很好,他使招,她便拆招,他关她入水牢,她当是洗澡。与他纠葛中,她遗失了自己的心,爱上这样冷酷的男人,是她今生的劫难。若繁花落尽,尘世无埃,他依然恨她入骨,那她只有选择永远的离开。
  • 探梦者之绝壁生崖

    探梦者之绝壁生崖

    我们处在这样的世界,分不清是现实还是虚幻。所经历的事情是一场场梦,还是现实。冒险的精神让我们一次次发现新的人生和大陆,却又一次次让我们感到迷茫和恐惧。不敢前行。关于旅途,我们出于好奇。关于探险,我们付出生命。在这神奇的东方国度里,究竟有多少我们看不到的风景。而这条路还有多远?我们依旧看不到尽头。神灵,将我们带入走不出的奇幻,为其付出,哪怕是生命。