Agnati

In civil law

The members of a Roman family who traced their origfin and name to a common deceased ancestor through the male line, under whose paternal power they would be if he were living. They were called adgnati, — adcnati, from the words ad eum Ttati. Ulpianus says: "Adgnati autem sunt cognati virilis sexus ab eodem orti; nam post suos et consaguineos statim mihi proximus est consanguinei met films, et ego ei; patris quoque f rater qui patruus appellatur; deinceps ceteri, si qui sunt, hinc orti in infinitum,."

Dig. 38. 16; De Suis 2, § 1.

Thus, although the grandfather and father be dead, the children become sui juris, and the males may become the founders of new families, still they all continue to be agnates; and the agnatic spreads and is perpetuated not only in the direct, but also in the collateral, line. Marriage, adoption, and adrogation also create the relationship of the agnatio. In the Sentences of Paulus, the order of inheritance is stated as follows: Intestatorum hereditas, lege Duodeeim Tabularum primum suis heredibus, de inde adgnatis et aliquando quoque gentibus deferebatur. They are distinguished from the cognati, those related through females.

See Cognati.