CASE 3: Agnatic Relationship
Gaius, Institutiones 1.156
Sunt autem agnati per virilis sexus personas cognatione iuncti, quasi a patre cognati, veluti frater eodem patre natus, fratris filius neposve ex eo, item patruus et patrui filius et nepos ex eo.
at hi, qui per feminini sexus personas cognatione coniun- guntur, non sunt agnati, sed alias naturali iure cognati. itaque inter avunculum et sororis filium non agnatio est, sed cognatio. item amitae, materterae filius non est mihi agnatus, sed cognatus, et invicem scilicet ego illi eodem iure coniungor, quia qui nascuntur, patris, non matris familiam sequuntur.(Gaius in the first book of his Institutes)
Agnates (agnati) are persons related (solely) through males, roughly relatives through the father: for instance, a brother born from the same father, this brother’s son, or a grandson from him; likewise, an uncle on the father’s side, this uncle’s son, or a grandson from him.
But persons who are related through females are not agnates but are otherwise relatives (cognati, “cognates”) by natural law. Thus, the relationship between an uncle and the son of his sister is not agnate but cognate. Likewise, the son of an aunt on my father’s or mother’s side is not my agnate but my cognate; and in turn, of course, I am related to him by the same rule.
For newborns fall into the household (familia) of their father, not of their mother.
1. Agnates. Blood relationship is expressed in Latin by the word cognatio (kinship), which is broad enough to include all those whom we would normally regard today as our relatives. However, the Latin language and Roman law draw a distinction, which we usually do not draw, between blood relatives who are related only through males and those related through either males or females.
The members of the first group are described as “agnates.” Between any two individuals, an agnate relationship exists if they are descended in the male line from a common male ancestor. Thus, a brother and sister are agnates to each other; and each of them, in turn, is an agnate to the sister or brother of their father (a paternal aunt or uncle) and to a paternal uncles sons and daughters (cousins), and so on. Agnate relationship is crucial in constituting the familia; and especially in early law agnates were also important in family law more generally. Relatives through females are sometimes called “enates,” but this term is not important for law.2. Classifying Relatives. Try sorting out your own blood relatives based on whether or not they are your agnates. One of the most surprising results, which, however, flows straightforwardly from the definition of agnatic relationship, is that your father is your agnate, but your mother is not; similarly, your paternal grandfather is an agnate, but your paternal grandmother and maternal grandparents are not. What social or political factors might have prompted early Romans to have made such a distinction? As this Case indicates, Latin even differentiates between uncles and aunts: paternal (patruus, amita) and maternal (avunculus, matertera).
More on the topic CASE 3: Agnatic Relationship:
- CASE 3: Agnatic Relationship
- Contents
- The case histories in previous sections each focus on a genre of violence within a circumscribed relationship or group.
- CASE150: Age Requirements
- INTESTATE SUCCESSION
- A commonplace view of how many religions approach the right relationship to self-worth is that the less we have of it, the better off we are.
- Index
- Norms and interests