Living with Family

[Lucius Galerius Falconius]

How long did a son of a Roman citizen live with his mother and father?

Until he was 14? Married?

[Carlton Bach]

How long did a son of a Roman citizen live with his mother and father?

Until he was 14? Married?

Basically, as long as Dad bloody well said, and he was going to *like* it, too!

ON a more serious note, the legal structure of the Roman family did not allow for a formal independence. As long as the father lived, he held parental authority over his sons, no matter whether they lived at home or not. That means that there was no rite of 'age of fosterage', 'coming into one's years' or 'going off to College' like in other cultures. A young Roman man might well find himself living in his father's household until the old man died, leaving him the new head of the household. Of course, there is no rule that says it must be so, either. Young men could go off to join the army (in wehich case they enjoyed the privilege of controlling their own moveable property, the peculium castrense, without their father's interference - otherwise, no Roman legally owned property while his father lived). He could go to study or to work or start a business, or just off to the city to seek opportunity, and his father might well be happy to see him go, especially if the farm was small and the family big. Young men of wealthy families could rent or even buy homes and live to all intents and purposes a separate life, marry, have children, and do business, but he will technically remain under his father's authority and need his permission (Cicero once uses that for a cheap legal trick: "You say my client is profligate with his money? But his father is alive! He *has* no property!" IIRC it's the defense of Sextus Roscius).

So in short, there's no saying, but he had better leave home in agreement with his father. Otherwise, daddy had the legal right to sell him into slavery (though no more often than three times) or kill him.