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The gens and Intestate Inheritance in the Early Republic*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2017

Charles Bartlett
Charles Bartlett*
Affiliation:
Harvard University [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper attempts to gauge the ability of the gens to influence the affairs of its members by tracing the development of the rules governing intestate inheritance. It will argue that, although the power of the gens in this area of the law did eventually give way to a more centralised and stronger state, a development which has been documented in other areas of Roman society as well, the gens was nonetheless able to continue to exert an influence on its members for some considerable time. The present study will analyse several cases to argue this point and examine both the means by which this centuries-long change took place, as well as highlight a period that witnessed a potential acceleration of the trend away from gentilicial importance. Finally, it will return to the circumstances of early Rome, the focal point for this volume, and offer some cautionary notes for thinking about the period that was in many ways the starting point for these developments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 51: Thematic Issue: Politics and Power in Early Rome 509-264 BC , 2017 , pp. 172 - 185
Copyright
© The Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2017 

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Jeremy Armstrong, Jean-Jacques Aubert, Emma Dench, Charles Donahue, James Richardson, Christopher Smith, Richard Tuck, and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions.

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