Thinking about our discussion of the deification of Caesar, my mind jumped through a couple of conceptual hoops and I was struck by a very suden thought. One of the many titles granted to Caesar was pater patriae, Father of his country. I think we tend to gloss over this as another bit of flattering puffery and those of us who are Americans may draw some vague connection to George Washington, who was often referred to in this way for his role in the United States’ creation. But I wonder if there may be a great dea more significance to this title.

Fatherhood played a very important role in Roman society. Today we have watered down the term pater familias to mean simply a family father, but in the late Republic it had far more significance. The pater familias was the senior member of a large and extended group, even an entire gens. He held extraordinary rights and powers over all other members of his family. A man could be a powerful and wealthy senator, deferred to by hundreds, but if his father still lived he wasn’t really his own man.

The pater familias was not unlike a patron for his entire family and they owed him the respect a client owed a patron, at the very least. He held de jure control over their wealth and property and even held a theoretical power of life and death over them. A father could kill a son with complete impunity, or dispose of a daughter or other female family member as he saw fit. In actual practice things weren’t that extreme, but Cato would have told you that was the way things ought to be.

And I have begun to wonder if the title Father of his Country might have had implications similar to those of Father of his Family. This may have been a good deal more than another ego-stroke.