What were roman dads like?

Question

hi i would like a very good answer

Answer 1

the notion we get from Virgil is that they concerned themselves with pious or piety. and this is re-enforced withe last letters from Pompey that adult man were concerned with something very like the Greeks with life by the sword and shield although not search for glory as much as been virtuous

Answer 2

probleably the same as our dads now minus the technology. they wee still prolly hard on theyre kids and stuff just like us

Answer 3

probably not much different from the modern day dad, some times he yells cause you do somthing silly, sometimes he is really proud of you.  the surroundings and technology change but human nature is pretty much the same

Answer 4

1. Roman fathers had extensive legal rights that seem strange to us today. They were "pater familias", meaning head of the household. This meant that they owned all the property of all family members. They had absolute power over all family members, including (in theory at least) the power of life and death. For example, the father had the right to decide whether a newborn infant was accepted into the family.

2. The father would also decide who his daughters would marry, and would base his decision on financial or political factors rather than romantic ones. However, it was important to the Romans that marriage had the consent of both bride and groom.

3.  Although the Roman father had the right of life and death, in practice the Romans would have been aghast at a father who mistreated his children. Devotion to the family was celebrated and admired by Roman culture. Roman fathers typically showed affection to their children, and sometimes spoiled them. Letters between fathers and sons show that their relationship was similar to that of fathers and sons today.

3. Roman parents were closely involved in the education of their children. They also typically served them food. More emphasis was placed on moral education (“respect the gods!” “show obedience!”) than on intellectual development. Richer households would typically use slaves as tutors, though the fathers were still involved to some extent.

4. Roman boys were the constant companions of their fathers, just like Roman girls were the constant companions of their mothers. Outside school, boys would typically accompany their fathers at work. Farmers’ sons would work in the fields, while the sons of senators would attend debates in the senate.

5. Roman fathers personally taught their sons the use of weapons, as well as manly sports such as riding, swimming, wrestling and boxing. The emphasis was on strength and agility.

6. The typical Roman dad was probably a lot younger than our typical dad! Romans often got married at the age of 14. The average life expectancy in ancient Rome was 20-30.

http://www.forumromanum.org/life/johnsto...

http://www.forumromanum.org/life/johnsto...

http://abacus.bates.edu/~mimber/Rciv/pat...

http://members.aol.com/bkdonnclass/Romel...

http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire...

Answer 5

In Roman law the Pater Familias (male head of family) had absolute power over everyone in his family, all his children (even when they were grown up) and sometimes his wife as well (his wife might still be under the authority of her own father or other male relative, it depended on the type of marriage she had).  Legally, he had the right to have them whipped or imprisoned, he even had the right to put them to death(though few fathers seem to have invoked these harsh penalties).  After he died, his adult sons were liberated from his authority, but any under-age sons, and daughters of any age would pass to the authority of the next male to assume the title in the family.

Sometimes when a woman married she might have a marriage with manus, which meant that she passed from the authority of her father to that of her husband.  However, in a marriage without manus, her father remained the ultimate authority in her life.

Despite the immense power that they had over their children, fathers were often very affectionate.  Cato never missed a chance of being at his baby son's bathtime.  Cicero was grief-stricken when his daughter Tullia died in childbirth.

One of the most important functions of the pater familias was to oversee the religious rites required to maintain the well-being of the family.  Vesta was the goddess of the hearth, involved in the preservation of the household fire.  The cupobards of stored food had their own spirits, the Penates.  Then there were the gods of the household, the Lares, who traditonally guarded the boundaries of the home and all who lived in it.

The only way for the family to keep the pax decorum was to follow the correct ritual.  A sacred salted cake was thrown into the fire at the chief meal every day to appease Vesta.  Misfortune followed when a ritual was not performed properly and the only way to regain the favor of the gods was to carry out the ritual again or to discover a new formula of appeasement.

Despite what the comment above says, not all romans died young, if they had done there would have been no-one to raise the children.  The 'average age' mentioned is because of the high number of children who died in infacancy, due to the prevelence of infectious diseases that nowadays people are immunised against.  If you survived the hazards of childhood, you had a good chance of living into middle age or beyond.