PATER (Lat.). Father. The Latin term is considerably used in genealogical tables.
(Lat.). In Civil Law. One who was sui juris, and not sub ject to the paternal power.
2. In order to give a correct idea of what was understood in the Roman law by this term, it is proper to refer hriefly to the artificial organization of the Roman family,—tbe greatest moral pheno menon in the history of the human race. The comprehensive term familia embraced both persons and property : money, lands, houses, slaves, chil. dren, all constituted part of this artifieial this juridical entity, this legal patrimony, the title to which was exclusively vested in the chief or pater-fantiliao, who alone was capax dominii, and who belonged to himself, tat ijorio.
The word pater-familiao is by no means equiva lent to the modem expression father of a family, but means proprietor in the strongest sense of that term; it is he qui in dont° dominion habet, in whom were centred all property, all power, all authority : he was, in a word, the lord and master, whose au thority was unlimited. No one hut he who was auti forte, who was pater-familicza, was capable of ex ercising any right of property, or .wielding any superiority or power over any thing; for nothing could belong to him who was himself alieni folic Hence the children of the fiUi-famiiias, as well as those of slaves, belonged to the pater-familias. In the same manner, every thing that was Required liy the sons or slaves formed a part of the/alai/in, and, consequently, belonged to its chief. This ab solute property and power of the only ceased with his life; uoless he voluntarily parted with them by a sale; for the alienation by sale is in variably the symbol resorted to for the purpose of dissolving the stern dominioo of the over those belonging to the familia. Thus, both emancipation and adoption are the resulte of ima ginary intaginarias venditionee. As the daughter remained io the family of her father, grandfather, or great-grandfathcr, as the case might be, notwithstanding her marriage, it followed as a neceSsary consequence that the child never belonged to the same family as its mother : there is no civil relatiooship between them ; they arc natural rola tions,--cognati,—but they are not legally related to each other,—agnati ; and therefore the child never inherits from its mother, nor the mother from her child. There was, however, a ineans by which the wife might enter into the family and subject her self to the power of her husband, in mann mariti, and thereby establish a legal relationship between herself and her husband. This marital power of the husband over the wife was generally acquired either coemptione, by the purchase of the wife by the husband from the pater;familias, or 7(811, by the prescription based oo the possession of one year,—the same by which the title to movable pro perty was acquired according to the principles governing the osucopio (mu capeve, to obtain by use). Another mode of obtaining the same end was the confarreatia, a sacred ceremony performed by the breaking and eating of a smell cake, far rettm, by the married couple. It was eupposed that by ao observance of this cereumny the mari tal power was produced by the intervention of the gods. This solemn mode of celebrating marriagee was peculiar to the patrician families. By means of these fictions and ceremonies the wife becanie in the eye of the law the daughter of her husband, and tbe sister of the children to whom she gave birth, who would otherwise have been strangers to her. Well might Gales say, Fere nulli alii aunt
honvinee gni talon 171 liberoehateant poteetatem, qua lm .1109 habenzus.
3. There is some similarity between the agnatio, or civil relationship, of the Romans, and the trans mission of the Dame of the father, under the modern law, to all his descendants in the male lino. The Roman law says of the children, patrie, non main's, fa miliam se gn untur ; we say, patris, non mateie, nomen segunntur. All the members of the family who, witk us, bear the same name, were under that law agnates, or constituted the agnatio, or civil family. Those children only belonged to the family, and were subject to the paternal power, who had been conceived in finale 21uptiie, or been adopted. Nuptize, or matrimoninm, was a marriage celebrated in conformity with the peculiar rules of the civil law. There existed a second kind of , marriage, called valid union and a real nnar riagey—which has been often improperly confounded, even by high authority, with coocubinage. This confusion of ideas is attributable to a superficial examination of the subject; for the illicit ioter course between a man and a woman which we call coneubinage was stigmatiz,ed by the opprobrious term etnprunt by the Romans, and is spoke° of in thc strongest terms of reprobation. The coneu binatua was the natural marriage, and the only one which those who did not enjoy the jus connubii were permitted to contract. The Roman law re cognized two species of marriage, the one civil, and the other natural, in the same manoer as there were two kinds of relationship, the agnatio and coynatio. The juatze nuptize or juetunt matrimonium, or civil marriage, could only be contracted by man citizens and by those to whom the fits connubii had been ooneeded : this kind of marriage alone — produced the paternal power, the right of inherit ance, etc.
4. But the rapid rise and extraordinary greatness of the city attracted immense crowds of stran gers, who, not possessing the jzze contrubii, could form no other union than that of the coneubinatua, which, though authorized by law, did not give rise to those legal effects which Rowed from the jnetse nuptite. By adoption, the person adopted was transferred from one family to another; he passed from the paternal power of one to that of another : consequently, no one who Wa8 onijuris could be adopted io the strict nose of that word. But there was another species of adoption, called adrogatin, by which a person 821i jurie en tered into another family, and subjected himself to the paternal power of its chief. The effect of the adrogation was not confined to the person adro gated alone, but extended over hie family and pro perty. 1 Marcade, 75 et seg.
This extraordinary organization of the Roman family, aod the unlimited powers and aothority vested in the paterlamilias, continued until the reign of Justinian, who, by his 118th Novel,• en acted on the 9th of August, 544, abolished the dis tinction between the agnatio and cognotio, and established the order of inheritance which, with some modifications, continues to exist at the pre sent day in all countries whose jurisprudence is based on the civil law. See PATEIA POTESTAS.