Quotes About Paterfamilias

My family is not only attractive - I can say that because I'm paterfamilias - but they're really smart, and they're very, very compassionate.

In any case, many of the rites that became public had in fact originated in the family. A Roman's house was like a temple, and the paterfamilias its hign priest.

From the cultic point of view, the consequences were not fundamentally alien to tradition. Oaths were sworn by the genius of the master, and just as that of the paterfamilias was honoured in domestic lararia, henceforward Augustus's 'Genius' had his place in private chapels. But the veiled genius, who exemplified piety with his patera for libations and promised happiness with his horn of plenty, was often replaced by the sovereign's picture.