Patriarchy

 

Veii (pic god) was the Southern City of the Etruscan nation, which was at permanent war with the Latin nation. Rome (16 km) was its nearest Latin settlement. After hundreds of years of hostility, Rome conquered and evacuated Veii. Rome had been burned down and impoverished by the Gaul incursion, so the plebeian population decided to abandon the city and move in mass to the vacant homes and fertile farms of Veii. 

Livius writes that the Senators descended personally to the Forum to beseech them to stay and not forsake the sacred Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol and the hallowed fire in the Temple of the Vestals. The tribes voted and the Senators won by one tribe. Then, the Senate voted to distribute the ager veii among the populace, 15000 sq, m. to each adult male. 

Livius comments that the Senate hoped that having a farm will encourage them to form families and produce children. Rome was engaged in continuous wars and needed soldiers. The government was always promoting marriage with patriarchal legislation (extremely favorable to married men. A Paterfamilias was empowered to the point of selling wife and children into slavery), subsidies to children, and free bread distribution. It did not work. The Greeks before them had the same depopulation problem. Europe today abolished patriarchy and men are almost powerless, yet still, it is fast losing population. The Chinese had their Confucian cult of ancestors. It was discarded as soon as Western ideas reached them. 

What works? 

----