 |  |
Adrogation.--When the person to be adopted was his own master, he was adopted by
the form called adrogation (from the word for "ask", since in this case the adopter, the
adopted, and the people were "asked", rogatur). The law demanded that the adopter
should be at least eighteen years older than the adopted: for says Justinian:
"Adoption imitates nature, and it seems unnatural that a son should be older than his
father" (Justinian).
"Adoption was called in law a capitas diminutio, which so far annihilated the
pre-existing personality who underwent it, that during many centuries it operated as an
extinction of debts" (W. E. Ball).
The effect of adoption was fourfold:
(1:)
A CHANGE OF FAMILY.--The adopted person was transferred from one gens to
another.
(2:) A CHANGE OF NAME.--The adopted person acquired a new name; for he
assumed the name of his adopter, and modifies his own by the termination -ianus.
Thus, when Caius Octavius of the Octavian gens was adopted by Julius Cæsar, he
became Caius Julius Cæsar Octavianus.
(3:) A CHANGE OF HOME, and (4:) NEW RESPONSIBILITITES AND
PRIVILEGES.--While the adopted person suffered many "losses", these were
more than counterbalanced by his "gains", for he received a new capacity to
inherit. In the case of the adopter dying intestate, the adopted son acquired the
right of succession.
Paul alludes to the patria potestas, the absolute power of the father in the family, in
Gal. 4:, where he speaks of "the child differing nothing from a slave" and goes on to say
"Thou art no longer a slave, but a son" (Gal. 4: 7). Paul also alludes to tutelage in
Gal. 3: and 4:, where we have such phrases as "kept in ward", "tutor to bring us to
Christ", "under guardians and stewards", and "children held in bondage" (Gal. 3: 23 -
4: 1).
So far as the ceremony was concerned, the difference between the transferring of a son
into slavery, and his becoming a member of the family was very slight. In the one case
the adopter said: "I claim this man as my slave"; in the other, "I claim this man as my
son". The form was almost the same; it was the spirit that differed.
If the adopter died and the adopted son claimed the inheritance, the latter had to testify
to the fact that he was the adopter heir. Furthermore--
"the law require corroborative evidence. One of the seven witnesses is called. `I was
present', he says `at the ceremony. It was I who held the scales and struck them with the
ingot of brass. It was an adoption. I heard the words of the vindication, and I say this
person was claimed by the deceased, not as a slave but as a son'." (W. E. Ball).
Bearing all these facts in mind, can we not feel something of the thrill with which the
Roman Christian would read the words of Rom. 8:?