Adoption

The subject of adoption occupied an important position in Roman law, adoptions being very common among the Romans. Originally the object of adoption seems to have been to prevent the extinction of a family by the death of the paterfamilias without heirs. The Romans attached much importance to the perpetuation of one's legfal personality.

This was accomplished in the case of one dying leaving children by the succession of his children to his personality as his heirs. And anciently the chief function of the heir was not to succeed to the property of the deceased but to continue his legal personality. But if the head of the family ,left no descendant, his family and its sacred rights {sacra privata) were extinguished with him.

To prevent this calamity, the device of adoption was resorted to, by which, by a fictitious relationship, an heir was obtained to a man without natural descendants. And in keeping with the purpose of the adoption, only men without hope of children of their own could adopt, which excluded all persons but married men without descendants or the hope of any. Historically the practice of adoption seems to have antedated that of making wills, both having originally the same object, the determination of the devolution of the inheritance in the absence of natural heirs by supplying an heir.

Women were incapable of adopting, but during the later Empire (time of Diocletian) women whose children had died were allowed to adopt by rescript of the Emperor, the only effect of the adoption being to create mutual rights of intestate succession between the adoptive mother and the adopted child and his descendants.

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Effects of Marriage with Manus

By the strict marriage the wife passed into the marital power of her husband {in manum viri). The manus or marital power may be regarded as a particular form of the patria potestas. An uxor in manu was a member of her husband's household. Although called a materfamilias, this term did not have a meaning corresponding to the term paterfamilias. The wife was not the head of the family. She stood legally in the position of a daughter {in loco filiafamilias) of her husband. If she had children she was regarded as a sister of her own children. The relation of husband and wife, both as regards the wife's person and her property, was governed by the same rules of law as governed the relation of father and child. The law of husband and wife may, therefore, be considered as merely a particular branch of the law of parent and child. The husband had, in general, the same power over the person of his wife in manu as the father had over his child. Anciently, it may be suppo...
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Slavery by Birth

The children of a female slave became the slaves of her master. The status of the father as free or slave was immaterial. The general rule governing the determination of the status of a child, whether as free or slave, or as citizen or alien, was as follows : Children born in lawful wedlock had the status of the father at the moment of conception, children born out of wedlock had the status of the mother at the moment of birth. Hence if the father of a child of a lawful marriage was free at the moment of conception, the child was free although the father should subsequently lose his freedom. As to children born out of wedlock, the general rule, as above stated, was that it was the status of the mother at the moment of birth that determined the status of the child. If the mother was free at the moment of conception but a slave at the moment of birth, the child was a slave, and conversely. This was the earlier law, but the rule was modified in the interest of liber...
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Mandate (Mandatum)

Mandate (mandatum) was a contract by which one person mandatarius agreed to do something gratuitously at the request of another mandator , who, on his part, agreed to save him harmless from all loss in so doing. The mandator was said to give the mandatory a mandate, or commission to do the act in question. The term mandatum is sometimes translated "agency", but this translation is misleading. The mandatory is not properly described as an agent. Mandate was the only gratuitous consensual contract; the others, sale, hiring, and partnership, all being founded upon a consideration. Like the others, it was a bona fidei negotium , and bound the parties to do all that was required by good faith. It was of the essence of the contract of mandate that the mandatory should act gratuitously. But while this was true in a strict legal sense, it was allowed to agree upon a sum to be paid as a honorium , or salary, which might be recovered only by a special action and not b...
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