For example, the senator Quintus Fabius Maximus Eburnus is said to have killed his son for his “dubious chastity”. Filippo Carlà-Uhink has argued that the power did exist, but didn’t give heads of the household carte blanche to act as they pleased. However, historians have debated whether the power may have been largely symbolic and little used in practice. This included not only those physically living under his roof, but the wider family of brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews as well. A Roman paterfamilias (the family’s oldest living male) had, in theory, the power to kill someone within his household with impunity. Roman society was fundamentally hierarchical and patriarchal. However, not all of the cruel and unusual punishments we associate with the Romans were carried out in practice or uniformly enforced, and some changed significantly over time. Tarpeia is one of many legendary figures who appear in Livy’s History from the Foundation of the City regardless of whether she was a real person, it became established practice to throw traitors from the “Tarpeian Rock”. Such tales not only served as a warning for future generations, they also provided a backstory for some of Rome’s cruellest punishments. When a certain Tarpeia let the enemy Sabines into Rome, she was crushed and thrown headlong from a precipice above the Roman forum. Early Roman history is full of stories about the terrible fates that befell citizens who broke the law.
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