Family Life
The average Roman family consisted of father, mother, children,married sons, their family, and slaves. If you didn't get married by the age of 15-16, you were punished. The person who decided who his
children marry was the head of the house, the father (paterfamilias). The family was very important to the Romans. Women were under control of their husbands but controlled how the house was run and were known as (materfamilias).
The leader of the house (husband) could force marriage (usually for money) and divorce, sell his children into slavery, claim his dependents' property as his own, and even had the right to punish or kill family members. Romans reckoned descent through the male line, any children she had would belong to her husband's family.