Abstract
This paper seeks to challenge the long-standing interpretation of the ius vitae necisque as a formal legal right of Roman fathers. It offers a review and critique of the evidence upon which the claim of ancient origin is founded and highlights the consequent problems in comprehending late Republican and Imperial references to the killing of sons by fathers. An alternative and more satisfactory understanding is to be found in sociological thinking and it is argued that the comprehension of the ius vitae necisque as a formal right is not only invalid but obscures the real significance of its promotion as a political phenomenon in the age of Augustus and the early emperors of Rome.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial Introduction to Volume Six
- Articles
- Divine Vengeance in Herodotus’ Histories
- Routes across Calabria in Antiquity: Locri Epizephiri’s communications over the peninsula and its control of the Tyrrhenian littoral
- Camillus as Numa: religion in Livy’s refoundation narratives
- Athens and the Anchoring of Roman Rule in the First Century BCE (67–17)
- Ius vitae necisque: the politics of killing children
- Between Ideology and Social Practice: Baths and Bathing in Christian Communities in Late Antiquity
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial Introduction to Volume Six
- Articles
- Divine Vengeance in Herodotus’ Histories
- Routes across Calabria in Antiquity: Locri Epizephiri’s communications over the peninsula and its control of the Tyrrhenian littoral
- Camillus as Numa: religion in Livy’s refoundation narratives
- Athens and the Anchoring of Roman Rule in the First Century BCE (67–17)
- Ius vitae necisque: the politics of killing children
- Between Ideology and Social Practice: Baths and Bathing in Christian Communities in Late Antiquity