References

Additional sources and materials

In the context of the discussion about the social meaning of patria potestas in the Classical period, the author analyses the essence, the causes and the consequences of special legal norms and privileges concerning rights and family status of sons under patria potestas in military service (milites filii familias). The institute of peculium castrense, created with regard for specific conditions and needs of military service, made it possible, without disclaiming the principles of patria potestas, to restrict and control its application in the sphere of high state importance. The institute of peculium castrense smoothed over the difference between the persons sui iuris and alieni iuris, for such difference put in quite different positions soldiers under patria potestas and their independent fellows. At the same time the existence of milites filii familias as a special legal category is indicative of the importance of patria potestas, so great that even some irrelevant, as it might seem, details of everyday life of a small part of Roman soldiers could call for the emperor’s legal intervention. It was important to the emperors not only to bring about an innovation, but also to show his benevolence towards the warriors. Therefore, political and ideological considerations got entangled with quite pragmatic reasons for introducing special privileges. A special status of the professional army and the privileges granted to the military men would come to inevitable and not negligible contradictions with patria potestas. This means that the latter was not a marginal, or symbolic, or abstract convention, but an effective factor having to do with real life of a small but socially and politically important professional and social group of the Roman society.