168 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
grades of kinship in order to identify the nearest kin for purposes of
inheritance and guardianship. The Latin terminology for kin made a clear
distinction between uncles, aunts and cousins related through the father
( patrui, amitae and fratres/sorores patrueles ) and those related through the
mother ( avunculi, materterae and [con]sobrini ).
Whatever the social relationships among the early Latins on which the
classifi catory terminology was based, by the classical period little pattern in
Roman kinship relations existed that one could call a ‘system’. The law did
preserve some old agnatic rules, but they had begun slowly to break down
under the Republic and continued to do so under the Principate, until the
mother’s relationship with her children in intestate succession was given full
recognition in the Antonine era.^67 By this time the Romans had long since
ceased to make strong distinctions between agnates, cognates and affi nes in
daily social life. Indeed, the literary sources give the impression that Romans
felt a duty to help ‘kin’, but the feeling of obligation did not discriminate
between types of kin outside the immediate family. An indication of this can
be found in the absence of distinctions in the vocabulary used by the prose
authors. None of the words for cousin can be found in the letters of Pliny or
the works of moral philosophy by Seneca, suggesting not only that the
division between paternal and maternal cousins was unimportant, but that
cousins did not loom very large in the thinking of Romans about their social
relationships. The words for uncles and aunts do appear occasionally,
though without any obvious difference in social roles between paternal and
maternal uncles and aunts. General words for kin ( necessarius, propinquus ,
and mei, tui or sui ) seem to have been used more often than specifi c
classifi catory designations. Words meaning ‘mine’ or ‘yours’ were particularly
common in reference to relatives, and they did not distinguish kin from
unrelated dependants such as freedmen. Kin outside the immediate family
came into consideration as one group among others deserving protection
and help, with no special classifi cation of kin enjoying a privileged position.
The literary sources point to several types of services that kin provided
for one another in Roman families. The high mortality rate meant that many
children lost their fathers before adulthood: the computer simulation
suggests that perhaps a third of Roman children had lost their fathers by age
ten, and one in ten was an orphan. In cases of such misfortune, relatives of
all types were natural candidates to take in and raise the children (Pliny, Ep.
2.18, 4.19, 6.20; FIRA III, no. 69, 11.42ff.). In looking for help and support
in public or private affairs a Roman naturally considered kin by blood or by
marriage as a potential source. A senior brother, a former mother- in-law,
almost any relative could be called on to provide anything from a loan, to
support for a candidature, to a connection to secure citizenship from the
emperor (Pliny, Ep. 3.19.8, 3.8, 10.51). The point to be made about these
favours and services is that they do not serve to distinguish kinship from
friendship or patronage. Rather, kinship was intertwined in a broader
network of social relationships and reciprocal obligation.