CLAS 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Publius Clodius Pulcher, Adoption In Ancient Rome, Plebs

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: CLAS 1000
• Professor: John Walsh

Document Summary

Each noble aristocratic roman were given three names at birth. Important in deciding how and where a man voted. Publicly owned slaves, and even lower class romans owned slaves. Roman citizens were protected under law, slaves were not, they were possessions/objects. Manumissions slaves could be freed into (cid:834)free men(cid:835) Once free they could go on to lucrative careers. Adult adoption, childhood mortality was a constant problem among the romans. 1 in 5 roman men killed in wars with hannibal. Roman adoption was a way to compensate for this child mortality problem. Adrogatio a younger man might adopt (as a son) a man older than himself. Publius clodius pulcher a patrician who wanted to run for the office of the plebs, Most famous adoption ides of march 44bc (15th) when julius caesar is stabbed to. Just prior to this assassination caesar had adopted a son, a young man naed got himself adopted by a pleb so he could run for office.