The pater familias, also written as paterfamilias (plural patres familias),[1] was the head of a Roman family. The pater familias was the oldest living male in a household, and exercised autocratic authority over his extended family. The term is Latin for "father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate". The form is archaic in Latin, preserving the old genitive ending in -ās (see Latin declension), whereas in classical Latin the normal genitive ending was -ae. The pater familias always had to be a Roman citizen.
Roman law and tradition (mos maiorum) established the power of the pater familias within the community of his own extended familia.
