Restriction on Freedmen

[Ingsoc]

As I understand there were several restrictions on the status of freedmen, especially in realation to marriage into senatorial families, however I recently read Astin biography of Cato the Elder and he seem to think that Cato second wife was the daughter of one of his freedmen.

 

Now as Cato was known as the protector of Roman traditions and customs it's would seem to indicate that such a match was acceptable in that time, now my question is my and where did the treatment of freedmen change?

[M. Porcius Cato]

I think this case was anomalous in nearly every way, and it doesn't speak too much about changes in restrictions on freedmen.

 

First, wasn't Cato the Elder nearly 80 when he took the young Salonia from her father? Obviously age differences were nothing new in Rome, but an age gap of more than 60 years was certainly an anomaly even by Roman standards--most people never even lived to 80.

 

Second, Roman custom against marrying freedmen's daughters would have prevented the inevitable conflict of interests that would follow such a match. Again, consider Salonia's case. Though it reportedly pleased her freedman father enormously, for Salonia marriage to Cato couldn't have been a happy union. To say nothing of the obvious horrors, the teenaged Salonia would have been facing widowhood while her children were still toddlers and while she had not yet acquired the ability to manage Cato's estates, let alone fairly claim her rights against Cato's hostile children (one a consul) from his previous marriage. Strange to say, but had Cato had more respect for Roman tradition (!) poor Salonia would never have had to face such a bleak future (not that life in slavery would have been a rose garden either), nor would his sons from the previous marriage been forced to accept their former slave as their own mother.

 

Last, the Romans themselves seemed to think rustic Cato's marriage to Salonia was an anomaly. That's not certain, but the fact that Salonia's son was marked as M. Porcius Cato Salonianus is certainly consistent with the idea.

[Nephele]

Last, the Romans themselves seemed to think rustic Cato's marriage to Salonia was an anomaly. That's not certain, but the fact that Salonia's son was marked as M. Porcius Cato Salonianus is certainly consistent with the idea.

 

I'm more inclined to believe that Salonia's son was called M. Porcius Cato Salonianus not to mark any ignoble or anomalous origin, but rather simply to distinguish him from Cato's other son of the same name (by Cato's first wife, Licinia) who, by the way (and as I'm sure you already know), was called M. Porcius Cato Licinianus.

 

The use of a matronymic was an Etruscan custom that later spread to Rome. The earliest recorded instance of the use of this matronymic in the form of an additional cognomen by the Romans occurs in the family of Cato, which was based in Tusculum. Though not an Etruscan city, it was thought that Tusculum had at one time been under Etruscan influence, as evidenced by the name of the city which is thought by some to have been derived from Tusci, another word for the Etruscans.

 

But as for the marriage of Cato and Salonia, I agree with you that it was most likely an anomalous case. At the incredible age of 80 and with an already firmly established reputation behind him, what would Cato have to fear by way of any social or political censure regarding his choice of marriage?

 

-- Nephele

[M. Porcius Cato]

The use of an additional cognomen as a matronymic was an Etruscan custom that later spread to Rome. The earliest recorded instance of the use of this matronymic cognomen by the Romans occurs in the family of Cato, which was based in Tusculum. Though not an Etruscan city, it was thought that Tusculum had at one time been under Etruscan influence, as evidenced by the name of the city which is thought by some to have been derived from Tusci, another word for the Etruscans.

 

Good point. What's interesting is that the Salonian line of Cato the Elder turned out to be more responsible and optimate than the well-born Licinian line, which (best I recall) included the seditious tribune and die-hard Pompeian Gaius Porcius Cato.