Adoption in the Roman World

Adoption in other cultures and other times provides a background to understanding the operation of adoption in the Roman worlds. This book considers the relationship of adoption to kinship structures in the Greek and Roman world. It considers the procedures for adoption followed by a separate analysis of testamentary cases, and the impact of adoption on nomenclature. The impact of adoption on inheritance arrangements is considered, including an account of how the families of freedmen were affected. Its use as a mode of succession at Rome is detailed, and this helps to understand the anxiety of childless Romans to procure a son through adoption, rather than simply to nominate heirs in their wills. The strategy also had political uses, and importantly it was used to rearrange natural succession in the imperial family. The book concludes with political adoptions, looking at the detailed case studies of Clodius and Octavian.

• A comprehensive cross cultural treatment of adoption as a familial strategy, allowing the reader to understand how adoption has been used historically in other cultures
• An analysis of Roman procedures for adoption and details of the impact of adoption on succession arrangements which explains and clarifies the legal rules behind the social phenomenon of adoption in Rome
• Illustrates the use of adoption to achieve political ends, clarifying the position in important cases from late Republic and early Empire