Agnates / Agnatic Relatives
Agnates / Agnatic relatives – from the Latin agnatus, meaning “relative on the father’s side” – in Roman law, members of an agnatic family who, regardless of blood relationship, were subject to the authority of one head of household, or paterfamilias.
All those who were under his power were agnates and were considered relatives. Blood relationship at that time did not yet have legal significance. A girl who married and went to live in her husband’s family ceased to be an agnate, or legal relative, of her parents, brothers, and sisters. Instead, in her husband’s family she came under the authority of the head of the new household and became, in legal terms, the daughter of her husband’s father and mother and the sister of her husband’s brothers and sisters.
This form of kinship deprived the young woman of inheritance rights after the death of her blood parents, since she was no longer considered their legal relative. She also lost all other rights arising from kinship.
Agnates were, of course, often connected by blood ties, as, for example, a father and his children were. However, blood relatives were defined only through the male line; they were also called relatives in the male line. In addition to blood relatives, all those who were under the power of the head of the family belonged to the agnates: the wife, daughters-in-law, dependents, adopted children, and so on. Yet only subordination to the authority of the head of household had legal significance.
Agnatic kinship was determined only through the father’s line, since it was based on subordination to the authority of the father of the family. The descendants of children also became agnates of their head of household.
After the death of the head of household, his adult sons became bearers of authority in their own families, and their wives and children came under their power. In order to be called a head of household, it was sufficient to be a Roman citizen free from parental power. A man was considered a head of household even if he did not have a family.
“The head of household, or father of the family, is considered to be the one to whom power in the family belongs; and he is rightly so called even if he has no family,” wrote Ulpian. The head of household was the bearer not only of actual family power, but also of potential family power (Shemshuchenko, 1998).
Reference:
Shemshuchenko, Yu. (Ed.). (1998). Yurydychna entsyklopediia: V 6 t. [Legal encyclopedia: In 6 vols.]. Kyiv: Ukrainska entsyklopediia. Retrieved from http://leksika.com.ua/legal/ [in Ukrainian].
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