CASE 6: The Age of Majority
Gaius, Institutiones 1.196
Masculi autem cum puberes esse coeperint, tutela liberantur. puberem autem Sabinus quidem et Cassius ceterique nostri praeceptores eum esse putant, qui habitu corporis pubertatem ostendit, id est eum qui generare potest; sed in his qui pubescere non possunt, quales sunt spadones, eam aetatem esse spectandam, cuius aetatis puberes fiunt.
sed diversae scholae auctores annis putant pubertatem aestimandam, id est eum puberem esse existimant, qui XIIII annos explevit....(Gaius in the first book of his Institutions)
When males reach puberty, they are freed from guardianship (tutela). Sabinus, Cassius, and the rest of our teachers think that a male reaches puberty when he displays this physically, that is, when he is able to procreate. But for those persons, like eunuchs (spadones), who cannot undergo puberty, the age at which they become adults should be used. By contrast, the authors of the other (Procu- lian) school think that puberty should be reckoned in years; that is, they judge that a male reaches puberty if he has completed fourteen years.......................
1. Guardianship. Through the premature death of a father, a person can become sui iuris even though he or she is still far too young to be capable of adult decision making. Such young people require considerable supervision. Among the Romans, supervision was achieved by appointing a guardian, called a tutor (see Chapter VA.1).
2. Reaching Adulthood. When does a person cease being a child and become an adult? In determining this, the Romans made use of the physical changes associated with the onset of puberty.
Unfortunately, however, these changes are often difficult to observe without an embarrassing inspection. For girls, the age of majority was therefore simply set at twelve, which was taken as the normal time of puberty. Boys, by contrast, mature more slowly. This Case reflects a controversy between two groups of early imperial jurists: the Sabini- ans (Gaius's school), who in general required a boy to have the actual physical ability to procreate and who therefore presumably required physical inspection; and the Proculians, who set an age of fourteen for boys. Which approach is preferable? The issue was not finally settled until A.D. 529, when Emperor Justinian upheld the Proculian view (C. 5.60.3). On eunuchs, see Case 8.3. The Consequences of Adulthood. As this text indicates, an adult is no longer subject to the close supervision of a tutor, although even adult sui iuris women still were required to have a tutor (with considerably reduced powers), and both male and female youths often also had a sort of business advisor, called a curator, to help them with business affairs until they reached age twenty- five; on all this, see Chapter VA.2. In addition, males and females who reached adulthood were able to marry (Case 7) and to write wills for themselves (Case 173). Does the Roman age of adulthood strike you as too early? What social conditions can help determine what age is best?
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