See also Muirhead, "Roman Law," pp. 24-33, and the paragraph on the Quiritian Family in the article on Roman Law by the same writer in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," Vol. XX. §17. The Household.--If by our word family we usually understand a group of husband, wife, and children, we may acknowledge at once that it does not correspond exactly to any of the meanings of the Latin _familia_, varied as the dictionaries show these to be. Husband, wife, and children did not necessarily constitute an independent family among the Romans, and were not necessarily members even of the same family. Those persons made up the Roman _familia_, in the sense nearest to its English derivative, who were subject to the authority of the same Head of the House (_pater familiās_). These persons might make a host in themselves: wife, unmarried daughters, sons real or adopted, married or unmarried, with their wives, sons, unmarried daughters, and even remoter descendants (always through males), yet they made but one _familia_ in the eyes of the Romans. The Head of such a family--"household" or "house" is the nearest English word--was always _suī iūris_ ("independent," "one's own master"), while the others were _aliēnō iūrī subiectī_ ("dependent"). §18. The authority of the _pater familiās_ over his wife was called _manus_, over his descendants _patria potestās_, over his chattels _dominica potestās_. So long as he lived and retained his citizenship, these powers could be terminated only by his own deliberate act. He could dispose of his property by gift or sale as freely as we do now. He might "emancipate" his sons, a very formal proceeding (_ēmancipātiō_) by which they became each the Head of a new family, though they were childless themselves or unmarried or even mere children. He might also emancipate an unmarried daughter, who thus in her own self became an independent family. Or he might give her in marriage to another Roman citizen, an act by which she passed by early usage (§61) into the family of which her husband was Head, if he was _suī iūris_, or of which he was a member, if he was still _aliēnō iūrī subiectus_. It must be carefully noticed, on the other hand, that the marriage of a son did not make him a _pater familiās_ or relieve him in any degree from the _patria potestās_: he and his wife and their children were subject to the same Head of the House as he had been before his marriage. On the other hand, the Head of the House could not number in his _familia_ his daughter's children: legitimate children always followed the father, while an illegitimate child was from the moment of birth in himself or herself an independent family.