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What if that militar accused of treason in Roman Law..?
Was married to a peregrini, and at the time of his accusing she was pregnant... According to roman law, in this kind of marriage of a Roman citizen and a peregrini with rights of connubium, the children of that couple will inherit the father's status - but, my question is, if the child was not born yet when he lost his citizen status, in that case, the child will too become a slave?
Of course, the marriage will be dissolved at the moment of the militars' accusing, so probably the child will have the status of the mother... or not?
1 Answer
- Anonymous1 decade agoFavorite Answer
This is a fantastic question, as it really explores the grey area of Roman law. I don't know that there was in fact a clear cut answer. If I had to venture an educated guess, the child would have had the status of his father as he was born. Then again, military punishments in the Roman legions were very severe (if you fell asleep during guard duty, you were to be clubbed to death by your own squad-mates.) So a crime as dire as treason probably would have gotten the soldier summarily executed.
However, circumstances circumvent the question. During the Republican and early Imperial eras, soldiers were expressly fobidden from being married. And if I recall correctly, llegitimate children did not enjoy their father's patronage.
Around the start of the third century, these laws were relaxed as military installations along the frontier became permanent, and cities sprung up around the army's camp. Right as this was occuring, Emperor Caracalla made everyone within Rome's boundaries a free citizen in 211 CE. So by the time that this dillema would be occuring, everyone was (ostensibly) free.