Patria

1.

Belonging to a father; paternal.

Patria potestas

Paternal authority: the power which, under Roman law, the head of a family (paterfamilias) had over that family. Continued to the dose of the father's life; included his own children, the children of his sons and of his sons' sons. Did not include the children of a daughter: these belonged to a different family, the family of their own father. Originally, and for a long time, had a terribly despotic power. Not only was the father entitled to all the service and acquisitions of his child, as much as those of a slave, but he had the same absolute control over his person. He could sell him into mancipium, a status -analogous to slavery. Down to the Christian era, the father had the jus vitce et necis, the right to tate the life of the child. The reasons which caused the Romans to accept and tenaciously uphold the patria potestas must have been the profound impression of family unity, the conviction that every family was, and of right ought to be, one body, with one will and one executive. The English common law gave the husband a power not much less over his wife, and upon the similar idea of a natural normal imity of the married pair.^^ 2. Fatherland (terra being understood); country.

Nemo potest exuere patriam

No one may leave the kingdom. No subject can expatriate himself, — the English doctrine.' See ExPATRlA'noN. Parens patriae. Parent, father, of the iingdom or country.

See Parens.