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

PATRI7A POTESTAS.: PATRIA POTESTAS. 873i. 40; Plin. tI. N. xxxiv'; 11. s. 25)j or silver. hand equivalent to Imperium-; and on the other,
(Treb. Poll. Claud.:p. 208, c.) it expressed the power of those functionaries who
A patina, covered with a lid (operc2ulum), was had not the Imperium. Sometimes it was used
sometimes used to keep grapes instead of a jar to express a Magistratus, as a person (Sueton.
(Col. de Re Rust. xii. 43), a proof that this vessel Claud. 13; Juv. Sat. x. 100); and hence in the
was of a form intermediate between the PATERA Italian language the word Podesta signifies a
and the OLLA, not so flat as the former, nor so Magistrate.
deep as the latter. Hence it is compared to the Potestas is also one of the words by which is
crater. (Schol. in Aristoph. Ac7lhan. 1109.) expressed the power that one private person has
[CRATER.] This account of its shape accords with over another, the other'two being Manus and
a variety of uses to which it was applied, viz., to Mancipium. The Potestas is either Dominica,
hold water and a sponge for washing (Aristoph. that is, ownership as exhibited in the relation of
resp. 598), and clay for making bricks (Aves, Master and Slave [SERvusl; or Patria as ex1 143, 1146), in vomiting (Nub. 904), and in smelt- hibited in the relation of Father and Child. The
ing the ore of quicksilver. (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 8. Mancipium was framed after the analogy of the
s. 41.) But its most frequent use was in cookery Potestas Dominica. [MANcIPIUM.]
and pharmacy. (Plin. H. N. xxiii. 2. s. 33.) Al- Patria Potestas then signifies the power which
though the patera and the olla were also used, the a Roman father had over the persons of his children,
articles of diet were commonly prepared, some- grandchildren, and other descendants (.fiifii/nilias,
times over a fire (Planut. Pseud. iii. 2. 51; Plin. filiaeJbrnilias), and generally all the rights which
H. N. xviii. 11. s. 26, xxii. 25. s. 80), and some- he had by virtue of his paternity. The foundtimes without fire, in a patina, and more especially ation of the Patria Potestas was a Roman marwhen they were accompanied with sauce or fluid. riage, and the birth of a child gave it full effect.
(IIor. Sat. i. 3. 80.) Hence the word occurs in [MATRIMONIUM.]
almost every page of Apicius De Opsoniis [OPso- It does not seem that the Patria Potestas was
NIr1]; and hence came its synonym, d4ioolcsl. ever viewed among the Romans as absolutely
(Photius, Lex. s. r.) In the same bowl the food equivalent to the Dominica Potestas, or as involvwas commonly brought to table (Xen. Cyrop. i. 3. ing ownership of the child; and yet the original
4; Athen. iv. p. 149, f.; Plaut. IMil. iii. 1. 164; notion of the Patria came very near to that of the
Ter. Eun. iv. 7. 46; Hor. Sat. ii. 8. 43), an example Dominica Potestas. Originally the father had the
of which is XEJCdVLov Tdi' Xa-ywsY Itcpel, i. e. "a power of life and death over his son as a member
basin of stewed hare." (Aristoph. Aclharn. 1109.) of his familia: he could sell him and so bring him
But it is to be observed, that dishes [LANX, PA- into the mancipii causa; and he had the jus noxae
TERA] were used to bring to table those articles of dandi as a necessary consequence of his being
food, the form and solidity of which were adapted liable for the delicts of his child. He could also
to such vessels. give his child in adoption, and emancipate a child
The silver bowl was sometimes ornamented, as at his pleasure.
with ivy-leaves (lhederata, Treb. Poll. 1. c.), or by The father could exheredate his son, he could
the insertion of mirrors (specillata, Fl. Vopisc. Pro- substitute another person as heir to him [HERES],
buts, p. 234, ed. Salmasii). These bowls weighed and lie could by his will appoint him a tutor.
from 10 to 20 lbs. each. Vitellius, wishing to oh- The general rights and disabilities of a filiustain an earthenware bowl of immense size, had a farnilias may be thus briefly expressed-" The
futrnace constructed on purpose to bake it. (Plin. child is incapable, in his private rights, of any
H'. N. xxxv. 12. s. 46; Juv. iv. 130-134.) power or dominion; in every other respect he is
A method of divination by the use of a basin capable of legal rights." (Savigny, Systens, &c.
(Ascveyouavre[a) is mentioned by Tzetzes on Lyco- ii. 52.) The incapacity of the child is not really
phron, v. 813. [J. Y.] an incapacity of acquiring legal rights, for the
PATRES. [PATaICII; SENATUS.] child could acquire by contract, for instance; but
PA'TRIA POTESTAS. Potestas signifies ge- every thing that he acquired, was acquired for his
nerally a power or faculty of any kind by which father.
we do any thing. " Potestas," says Paulus (Dig. As to matters that belonged to the Jus Publi50. tit. 16. s. 215), " has several significations: cum, the son laboured under no incapacities: he
when applied to Magistratus, it is Imperium; in could vote at the Comitia Tributa, he could fill a
the case of Children, it is the Patria Potestas; in magistratus; and he could be a tutor: for the
the case of Slaves, it is Dominium." According Tutela was considered a part of Jus Publicuin.
to Paulus then, Potestas, as applied to Magis- (Dig. 1. tit. 6.. 9; Liv. xxiv. 44; Gell. ii. 2.)
tratus, is equivalent to Imperium. Thus we find The child had Connubium and Commercium,
Potestas associated with the adjectives Praetoria, like any Roman citizen who was sui juris, but
Consularis. But Potestas is applied to Magis- these legal capacities brought to him no present
tratus who had not the Imperium, as for instance power or ownership. His marriage with his father's
to Quaestors and Tribuni Plebis (Cic. pro Cluent. consent was legal (jztstum), but if it was accomc. 27); and Potestas and Imperium are often op- panied with the In Manum conventio, his wife
posed in Cicero. Both the expressions Tribuni- came into the power of his father, and not into the
cium Jus and Tribunicia Potestas are used (Tacit. power of the son. The son's children were in all
Ann. i. 2, 3). Thus it seems that this word cases in the power of their grandfather, when the
Potestas, like many other Roman terms, had both son was. The son could also divorce his wife with
a wider signification and a narrower one. In its his father's consent.
wider signification it might mean all the power Inasmuch as he had Commercium, he could be
that was delegated to any person by the State, a witness to Mancipationes and. Testaments; but
whatever might be the extent of that power. In lie could not have property nor servitutes. He
its narrower significations, it was on the one had the testamenti factio, as already stated, so far