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FAMILIA.
FAMILIA.
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described to be attached to the end of a pole, it would assume the form and be applicable to all the purposes of the modern halbert. Such must have been the asseres falcati used by the Romans at the siege of Ambracia. (Liv. xxxviii. 5 ; compare Caes. Bell. Gall. vii. 22, 86 ; Q. Curt. iv. 19.) Sometimes the iron head was so large as to be fastened, instead of the ram’s head, to a wooden beam, and worked by men under a testudo. (Veget. iv. 14.)
Lastly, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Medes, and the Syrians in Asia (Xen. Cyrop. vi. 1, 2, Anal). . 8 ; Diocl. ii. 5, xvii. 53 ; Polyb. v. 53 ; Q. Curt. iv. 9, 12, 13 ; Gell. v. 5 ; 2 Mace, xiii. 2 ; Veget. iii, 24 ; Liv. xxxvii. 41), and the Gauls and Britons in Europe [CoviNus], made themselves formidable on the field of battle by the use of chariots with scythes, fixed at right angles (els TrAdyiov) to the axle and turned downwards; or inserted parallel to the axle into the felly of the wheel, so as to revolve, when the chariot was put in motion, with more than thrice the velocity of the chariot itself; and sometimes also projecting from the extremities of the axle. [J. Y.]
FAMILIA. This word contains the same element as " famulus," which is said to be the same as the Qscanfaimtl orfamel., which signified "servus." The conjecture that it contains the same element as the Greek d/j,iia, and is the same as o/jl or a/x, is specious, hut somewhat doubtful. In its widest sense Familia comprehends all that is subjected to the will of an individual, who is sui juris, both free persons, slaves, and objects of property. In this sense it corresponds to the Greek o!kos and oiicia. But the word has various narrower significations (familiae — appellatio et in res et in personas diducitur, Dig. 50. tit. 16. s. 195. § ]). In the third kind of testamentary disposition mentioned by Gaius (ii. 102), the word " familia " is explained by the equivalent " patri-monium ;" and the person who received the familia from the testator (qui a testatore familiam. ac-cipiebat mancipio) was called " familiae emptor." And in the formula adopted by the "familiae emptor," when he took the testator’s familia by a fictitious sale, his words were: " Familiam pe-cuniamcjue tuam endo mandatam tutelam custode-larno|ue meam recipio," &c.
In the passage of the Twelve Tables which de-
clares that in default of any heres suns, the property of the intestate shall go to the next agnatus, the word " familia " signifies the property only : " Agnatus proximus familiam habeto." In the same section in which Ulpian (Frag. tit. 26. 1) quotes this passage from the Twelve Tables, he explains agnati to be " cognati virilis sexus per mares descendentes ejusdem familiae," where the word " familia " comprehends only persons. (Dig. 50. tit. 16. s. 195; 10. tit. 2.)
The word " familia " sometimes signifies only " persons," that is, all those who are in the power of a paterfamilias, such as his sons (filiifamilias daughters, grandchildren, and slaves, who are strictly objects of dominium, but are also in a sense objects of potestas. In another sense " familia " signifies only the free persons who are in the power of a paterfamilias ; and, in a more extended sense of this kind, all those who are agnati, that is, all who are sprung from a common ancestor, and would "be in his power if he were living. With this sense of familia is connected the status familiae, by virtue of which a person belonged to a particular familia, and thereby had a capacity for certain rights which only the members of the familia could claim. A person who changed this status, ceased to belong to the familia, and sustained a capitis diminutio minima. [ adoptio ; caput.] Members of the same family were "familiares ;" and hence familiaris came to signify an intimate friend. Slaves who belonged to the same familia were called, with respect to this relation, familiares. Generally, "familiaris " might signify any thing relating to a familia.
Sometimes " familia " is used to signify only the slaves belonging to a person (Cic. ad Fam. xiv. 4, ad Quint. Fr. ii. 6) ; or to a body of persons (societas), in which sense they are sometimes opposed to liberti (Cic. Brut. 22), where the true reading is "liberti." (Cic. ad Fam. i. 3.)
The word familia is also applied (improperly) to sects of philosophers, and to a body of gladiators : in the latter sense with less impropriety. In a sense still less exact, it is sometimes applied to signify a living, a man’s means of subsistence. (Ter. Heauton. v. 1. 36.)
A paterfamilias and a materfamilias were respectively a Roman citizen who was sui juris, and his wife in manu. (Cic. Top. 3 j.comp. Ulp. Frag. iv. 1, and Booking, Instit. i. pp. 217,229.) A filiusfamilias and a filiafamilias were a son and daughter in the power of a paterfamilias. The familia of a paterfamilias, in its widest sense, comprehended all his agnati; the extent of which term, and its legal import, are explained under cognati. The relation of familia and gens is explained under gens.
The notion of Familia as a natural relation consists of Marriage, the Patria Potestas, and Cognatio (kinship). But Positive Law can fashion other relations after the type of these natural relations. Of these artificial family relations the Roman law had five, which are as follow: — (1) Manus, or the strict marriage relation between the husband and wife ; (2) Servitus, or the relation of master and slave ; (3) Patronatus, or the relation of former master to former slave; (4).Mancipii causa, or that intermediate state between servitus arid libertas, which characterized a child who was rnancipated by his father [emancipatio] ; (5) Tutela and Curatio, the origin of which must be
