Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ADOPTIO. ADOPTIO. 15
KaT'&,'rccaVov vTEVE. 13.) If he had male 2. ROMAN. The Roman term was adoptio or
offspring, he could not dispose of his property. adoptatio. (Gell. v. 19.) The Roman relation of
This rule of law was closely connected with the parent and child arose either from a lawful marrule as to adoption; for if he could have adopted riage or from adoption. Adoptio was the general
a son when he had male children, such son would name which comprehended the two species, adoptio
have shared his property with the rest of his male and adroyatio; and as the adopted person passed
children, and to that extent the father would have from his own familia into that of the person adoptexercised a power of disposition which the law de- ing, adoptio caused a capitis diminutio, and the
nied him. lowest of the three kinds. Adoption, in its specific
Only Athenian citizens could be adopted; but sense, was the ceremony by which a person who
females could be adopted (by testament at least) as was in the power of his parent ( in potestate parenwell as males. (Isaeus, IIep Tro0'Ayviov KXApov.) turm), whether child or grandchild, male or female,
The adopted child was transferred from his own was transferred to the power of the person adopting
family and demus into those of the adoptive him. It was effected under the authority of a
father; he inherited his property and maintained magistrate (magistratus), the praetor, for instance,
the sacra of his adoptive father. It was not at Rome, or a governor (praeses) in the provinces.
necessary for him to take his new father's name, The person to be adopted was mancipated [MANbut he was registered as his son. The adopted CIPATIO] by his natural father before the comson might return to his former family, in case he petent authority, and surrendered to the adoptive
left a child to represent the family of his adoptive father by the legal form called injure cessio. (Gell.
father: unless he so returned, he lost all right v. 19; Suet. Azug. 64.)
which he might have had on his father's side if he When a person was not in the power of his
had not been adopted; but he retained all rights parent (sui juris), the ceremony of adoption was
which he might have on his mother's side, for called adroyatio. Originally, it could only be
the act of adoption had no effect so far as concerned effected at Rome, and only by a vote of the
the mother of the adopted person; she still con- populus ( populi auctoritate) in the comitia curiata
tinned his mother after the act of adoption. (lege curita) ); the reason of this being that the
The next of kin of an Athenian citizen were caput or status of a Roman citizen could not,
intitled to his property if he made no disposition according to the laws of the Twelve Tables, be
of it by will, or made no valid adoption during his affected except by a vote of the populus in the
lifetime; they were, therefore, interested in pre- comitia curiata. Clodius, the enemy of Cicero,
venting fraudulent adoptions. The whole com- was adrogated into a plebeian family by a lex
munity were also interested in preventing the in- curiata, in order to qualify himself to be elected a
troduction into their body of a person who was not tribunus plebis. (Cic. ad Alt. ii. 7, p. Dom.)
an Athenian citizen. To protect the rights of the Females could not be adopted by the adrogatio.
next of kin against unjust claims by persons who Under the emperors it became the practice to effect
alleged themselves to be adopted sons, it was re- the adrogatio by an imperial rescript (principis
quired that the father should enter his son, whether auctoritate, ex rescripto principis); but this practice
born of his body or adopted, in the register of his had not become established in the time of Gainus,
phratria (ppaerpibc, -ypauaCCoreo') at a certain or, as it appears, of Ulpian. (Compare Gaius, i.
time, the Thargelia (Isaeus, IIepl -ro'AiroXAobc&p. 98, with Gaius as cited in Dig. i. tit. 7. s. 2; and
KXipov, 3, 5), with the privity of his kinsmen and Ulpian, Frag. tit. 8.) It would seem, however,
phratores (yevvhiraT, <pparopEs). Subsequently from a passage-in Tacitus (Hist. i. 15), that Galba
to this, it was necessary to enter him in the adopted a successor without the ceremony of the
register of the adoptive father's demus (Ax7LapX1Cbv adrogatio. By a rescript of the Emperor AntoypatulTareov,), without which registration it ap- ninus Pius, addressed to the pontifices, those who
pears that he did not possess the full rights of were under age (impuberes), or wards (pupilli),
citizenship as a member of his new demus. could, with certain restrictions, be adopted by the
If the adoption was by testament, registration adrogatio. If a father who had children in his
was also required, which we may presume that the power consented to be adopted by another person,
person himself might procure to be done, if he was both himself and his children became in the power
of age, or, if not, his guardian or next friend. If of the adoptive father. All the property of the
a dispute arose as to the property of the deceased adopted son became at once the property of the
(KAXjpou BLCaLlcaoCa) between the son adopted by adoptive father. (Gaius, ii. 98.) A person could
testament and the next of kin, there could properly not legally be adopted by the adrogatio till he had
be no registration of the adopted son until the tes- made out a satisfactory case (justa, bona, causa)
tament was established. If a man died childless to the pontifices, who had the right of insisting on
and intestate, his next of kin, according to the certain preliminary conditions. This power of the
Athenian rules of succession (Dem. ITpbs AcoEX. pontifices was probably founded on their right to
c. 6), took his property by the right of blood preserve the due observance of the sacra of each
(a'yXLoreTa eraTa?yeos). Though registration gens. (Cic. p. Dom. 13, &c.) It would accordmight in this case also be required, there was no ingly have been a good ground of refusing their
adoption properly so called, as some modern writers consent to an adrogatio, if the person to be adopted
suppose; for the next of kin necessarily belonged was the only male of his gens, for the sacra would
to the family of the intestate. in such case be lost. It was required that the
The rules as to adoption among the Athenians adoptive father also had no children, and no reaare not quite free from difficulty, and it is not easy sonable hopes of any; and that he should be older
to avoid all error in stating them. The general than the person to be adopted. It is generally
doctrines may be mainly deduced from the orations assumed that all adrogations were made before the
of Isaeus, and those of. Demosthenes against curiae. Gains, however, and Ulpian use the exMacartatus and Leochares. pressions perpopulum, auctoritate populi, expressions