Augustan Marriage Laws

The Emperor Augustus sought by a comprehensive series of marriage laws (lex Julia de maritandis ordimhus (A. D. 4) and lex Papia Poppcea (A. D. 9), to promote marriages and encourage the bearing of children. Persons remaining unmarried {calibres) without sufficient reason and childless persons (orbi) were made incapable of taking property by will. These penalties were abolished by later emperors. (Sohm, § 99.)

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Rights and Duties of Parties

It was the duty of the landlord (locator) to deliver the property to the tenant (conductor) and to permit him to keep it for the time agreed upon. If the tenant was deprived of the property before the termination of his lease in consequence of the landlord's fault, the latter had to pay him full compensation (id quod interest). But if the landlord was not in fault, the tenant was entitled only to a remission of the rent. Thus, if a farm let to a tenant was confiscated, or a house burned, the tenant was entitled simply to remission of the rent. So in case of a chattel, if it was carried off by robbers, the hirer was released from payment for the unexpired term of the contract. If the lessor of a house determined to pull it down and rebuild it during the term, he had to pay the lessee compensation if the rebuilding was unnecessary, but if necessary, he was required simply to allow a remission of the rent. The landlord was also required to keep the property in good order...
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The Agnatic Family

The agnatic family was the aggregate of those who are bound together by a common paternal power. Members of the same family were called agnates. Agnates were all those who were subject to the same paternal power, or who would be subject thereto, if the common ancestor or paterfamilias were alive. Agnates might be related to each other by blood, but this was not necessarily the case. They need not be so related, nor were all blood relatives agnates. The agnatic relation was created by any one of the modes by which one may become a member of the agnatic fjmiily. These modes are: Birth Adoption Marriage All legitimate children of a Roman marriage (with manus) became by birth members of their father's agnatic family. So also all legitimate descendants, grandchildren, etc., through the males were likewise agnates. But the children or other descendants of daughters, married with manus, were not members of the same agnatic family to which their mother, or grandmother, e...
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Mandatary as Agent

A mandatary was bound to give up to his mandator all rights acquired against third persons by the performance of the mandate, and permit the mandator to sue in his name. The mandatary made the contract in his own name, and the mandator would sue thereon in the name of the mandatary, and in this round about way the function of an agent was served by the mandatary. (As to agency, see generally. Hunter, 609-626; Sohm, 219-224.)
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