the early empire at rome

Elite adoption can be said to involve similar issues in both late Republic and early Empire. Politics and inheritance were paramount. Regardless of status, Romans were concerned about continuity of family traditions, broadly interpreted. In the senatorial class, focus was on individual and group success in the cursus honorum and on the bundle of activities which resulted in individual honor. Military success and its public acknowledgement formed part of this, especially in the period of Rome's greatest growth. Inheritance of wealth was also a key issue. Particular items of real property closely associated with elite success may have been in some cases tied to social and political identity. These questions of sentiment and control might have encouraged adoption as a tool to foster continuity. Admittedly properties were also often freely acquired and disposed of, as can be seen from the case of Cicero (E. Rawson [1976] 85–102). The concept of ancestral properties in the manner of the British aristocracy appears little developed, but this may simply be a gap in our evidence. However, Crook plausibly suggests that the power derived from inheritance was largely the power to alienate property and determine succession to the capital wrapped up in it (Crook [1986] 58).

Demographic factors conspired to make linear succession a relatively difficult prospect. In the case of the childless, adoption provided a method to continue a tradition under threat.