Citizenship.
"To make the gods propitious, the youth has passed the last night of his infancy covered, like a bride on the eve of her nuptials, with a white material and a saffron-colored sort of net-work. Is not this a betrothal which is now to be completed: the indissoluble union of the new citizen to the city?"[193] The bulla was removed from the boy's neck and the toga prætexta taken off him and both were consecrated to the lares, a sacrifice was made, and then the boy was invested with the toga virilis. Then the boy was conducted to the Forum by his father or guardian, accompanied by relatives and friends, and formally presented to the public. He was, probably, also taken to the tabularium under the Capitol and his name enrolled among the list of full citizens.
This was a very important event in the life of the boy, as it freed him from the control of others, as he became by law a man, capable of looking after his own affairs and of holding property. After this he entered upon the affairs of life. If he was of the middle or lower classes, he entered directly into business or work; if of the upper class, he began to prepare for public life or the army.
Inheritance.
Instead of a written will there might be an oral declaration, which had to be made before the proper authorities and witnesses and recorded in the city registers. If the will of the soldier dying in battle was unfinished, it was valid if there was no doubt as to his intentions. Those by law who could not make a will, or whose will was invalid, were persons under the power of another, minors, the insane, people not capable of managing their own affairs, the civilly dead, and the banished. Where there was no will, the law provided an order of inheritance, the children taking precedence. In case there was neither will nor legal heir, the estate went into the public treasury.
Adoption.
There were three conditions necessary to adoption. The first requirement was that there were no sons in the family, nor hopes of any, and that the father should be about eighteen years older than the one to be adopted as a son; the second condition was that the honor, religion, domestic worship, or sacrifices of the two families, should not in any way be injured; and the third, that there should be no fraud or collusion.
Adoption proper was for minors. The two fathers, the natural and the adoptive, arranged the matter between them and then, with the child, went before the proper authorities and in the presence of witnesses was legally carried out. The adopted son took the rank and the name of the family into which he entered, he was introduced to the domestic sacrifices, and he became a full heir. If there was a daughter in the family, she became his sister and he could not marry her.
Adrogation was the form of adoption used with citizens who were their own masters. This required the consent of the people assembled for the purpose. Under this act a citizen with his property and all persons subjected to him passed into another's power.
"These adoptions finally led to abuse. The patrician, to obtain the tribuneship, would be adopted by some plebeian, and those who were without children, that they might enjoy office to which only fathers of families could be elected, adopted children, whom, after obtaining the offices, they emancipated. This finally required, to remedy it, a decree of the senate in the reign of Nero."[194]