The Traditional Graeco-Roman Household
Chapter One The Household in the Ancient World In this chapter we shall present a general discussion of the Graeco-Roman household in antiquity. A large topic such as this must be limited here to a brief survey, which will provide a more general context for the argument presented in subsequent chapters. The discussion will be divided into two parts. First, the general contours of the traditional Greek and Roman household will be presented. Here, literary evidence will be largely relied upon. In the second part we shall also turn our attention to epigraphic evidence and argue for the importance of the household and its patrons in the life and organization of various
Graeco-Roman groups.
The Traditional Graeco-Roman Household The basic economic, political, and religious social unit of antiquity was the household. Generally speaking, the ancient household was composed of two elements: the οίκος and the οικία. The οίκος was constituted by the habitation with all of its property, power, and possessions and the οικία consisted of the relatives, clientela, and servants.1 The Latin equivalent of the οίκος/οίκία unit is the domus/familia, Finley definesfamilia as "all the persons, free or unfree, under the authority of the paterfamilias, the head of the household, or all the descendants from a common ancestor; or all one's property; or simply all one's servants "2 The Septuagint translates the Hebrew word Πn 3 by both οίκος and οικία. 3 Οικος/οΙκία is used in the Septuagint to designate a physical dwelling (Esther 2:3; 7:8), the family of a patriarch (Gen. 50:8; 1 Sam. 1:21) including his wife, concubine, sons and daughters (Gen. 36:6), dependent relatives (Gen. 13:1), servants (Gen. 15:2), vassals (Gen. 14:14) and slaves (Gen.
17:13-27), a clan (2 Sam. 9:4), or domestic property with its privileges, tools, slaves, and livestock (Dt. 20:17; Esther 8:1). It is important to note, especially in the case of the Roman familia, that the family was not a static social phenomenon, but underwent a significant development in the course of antiquity.5 Still, the household remained an important institution economically, politically, and religiously throughout the period of Graeco-Roman civilization.
Notes to this chapter appear on pp. 24-28.
The Social Setting of the Ministry The basic element in Greek social, economic, and political life was the household.6 Aristotle (Politics 1252a f.) argues that the household is the smallest social unit of the state. Several households bound together make a village, and several villages the crowning association — the polis.7 The "complete household"
(1253b) consists of slaves and free men alongside the husband, wife, and children. Each of these has his or her appropriate place in the household and they are to be governed by proper relationships with one another. The householder rules his slave (animate property) as a master, his wife (a free member of the house) as a statesman, and his children, who are subject to him, as a monarch
(1255a f.; 1259 f.). Economy is presented as a matter of household management.
This is evident in Xenophon's Oeconomicus, where the proper relations between different members of the household are outlined.8 The household also provided a powerful ideological instrument to protect and maintain society. "Ethically, politically, and religiously," writes Elliott, the oikos provided the framework for viewing and distinguishing the native
(oifeeictf) from the stranger (metoikos, paroikos - allotrios), hence the citizen from the quasior non-enfranchised, the correligionist from the "heathen."9
The household in ancient Greek society was also the cultic centre of the family.
The household religious cult, of which the patriarch was head, had a central role in the family's daily life.10 "Der 'oikos' ist zugleich eine Kultund eine Lebensgemeinschaft. Der häusliche Kult und die F(amilie)grabstätte halten die
Verbundenheit selbst über den Tod hinaus noch aufrecht."11 The length of one's afterlife depended upon memory, and so was ensured above all through the remembrance at the grave, which carried the name of the dead. With the advent of the belief that the soul or spirit went to heaven after death, arose the idea that the spirit lived in heaven as in its earthly house.12 In heaven, as on earth, the household provided psychological comfort, certainty, and protection from chaos.13
As in Greece, so also in Rome the household community constituted the basic social unit of society. The ancient Roman family is described by Betti as a "Schicksalsgemeinschaft."14 "Die archaische, bäuerliche F(amilie)," writes
Gaudemet, "wird charakterisiert durch ihren festen Zusammenhalt, ihre Unterordnung, unter das Oberhaupt, ihre Treue gegenüber den Verfahren."15
Like the Greek οίκος, the Roman familia provided a psychologically and existentially satisfying social setting for its individual members.16 At the head of the familia was the paterfamilias, his power traditionally defined by Roman law in three parts: potestas, the power over his children, his grandchildren, and his slaves; manus, the power over his wife and his sons' wives; and dominium, the power over his possessions.17 The term pater connoted more than generation, it also implied authority and protection.18 The result of this, during the Republican period, was a society in which the family was the "irreducible unit in law, economics, religion, as well as other functional areas."19 Early Roman society was comprised of a number of households, each under its own paterfamilias, in whom was vested absolute authority over its members and the responsibility of executing justice.20 It was with the growth of the city-state and republican institutions that the autonomy of the family became more circumscribed.21 But while such institutions attempted to subordinate the autonomy of the house-
The Household in the Ancient World
hold to the public interest, "the household in its broader sense remained a rival body."22 In fact, where republican ideals had never been established, the autonomy of the household remained intact under the paterfamilias Ρ
In the political sphere, the Roman familia continued to exercise great influence even in Republican times. The competition and allegiances of Roman aristocratic families to achieve political ends in the autumn days of the Republic, testify to the importance of the household in this period.24 Amicitia and clientela, both extensions of the Roma η familia,25 formed the basis of political manoeuvring in the Republic, and then provided a structure for the princeps to establish an imperial system finally accountable to him alone. It was the alignment and realignment of the Roman aristocracy, thereby reducing Republican institutions to "the aggrandizement of the household community,
6 which resulted in rule by Caesar.
The household was also the location of the family cult, whose priest was the paterfamilias 2 8 Roman religion in the Republic consisted largely in "a spiritualization of family life, reaching back to earliest ancestors and forward to the unborn."29 "Nothing," Nisbet comments, violated the priestly authority of the Father over his hearth, and religion was deemed as inextinguishably a function of kinship as was life itself. Birth, marriage, and death were the ceremonial highpoints, and in each ritual the authority and unity of the family were, in effect, reaffirmed. No child was born into the family, he had to be accepted. What else were death rites but the means whereby one left the earthly members of the family to join the departed — who were deemed not the less living for their eternal stay elsewhere?30
This last point is supported by the fact that in some cases the Romans decorated their sarcophagi with representations of the household and its activities and sometimes even a doorway, in relief, to Hades. Petronius' Trimalchio, who believed he would live longer in the grave than in his earthly home, took great care with the erection and decoration of his grave 31 The departed soul depended for its preservation on the food offered by the householder still on the other side of the grave to the household gods, and especially his maintenance of the sacred flame. To allow strangers into the religion of the hearth was equally to risk the alienation of the departed.32
As in other aspects of Roman life, household religion followed a hierarchical pattern.33 Cicero prescribes that the performance of private rites is the duty of the paterfamilias 3 4 Cato reminds wives that it is the master who "attends to the devotions for the whole household"35 and Columella prohibits slaves from offering any sacrifice without the permission of the master 3 6 Their religious role in the household cult was confined mainly to menial tasks.37 Proper maintenance of the cult and homage to the genius of the master provided an important means for slaves to express their loyalty 3 8 While traditional household religion was increasingly threatened by the intrusion of new cults, throughout the imperial period the paterfamilias continued as the head or priest of the traditional household cult 3 9