Perhaps there is no subject which at the present time possesses greater interest for inquiring women than that concerning the status of their sex under the older Roman law; for, by an understanding of woman’s legal status, as fixed under this institution at a time when man had gained the summit of his power over her, is furnished a key whereby may be unlocked many of the mysteries surrounding the still extant social and legal disabilities of women. The thoroughly egoistic character of the principles underlying the older Roman law has been noticed in a former portion of this work. We have seen that in Rome the father, who was the sole representative of the family, had drawn to himself not only all the authority over the child which under the earlier gentile organization of society had been acknowledged as belonging exclusively to the mother, but, ignoring individual liberty, and all the principles of personal freedom which had been established under the matriarchal system, had proclaimed himself absolute sovereign over all within the agnatic bond. The divine oracle of Apollo, which had enunciated the doctrine that the soul of the child is derived from the father, had at the same time declared that the mother has to do only with furnishing the body. Thus the father, as Creator, became the household god; his authority, as we have seen, being supreme even to the exercise of the power of life and death over its members. Under ancient law, the father, as head of the household, really constituted the family, the remaining members being merely ciphers which, from the peculiar position in which they were placed, were without significance except as vassals under the strictest tutelage of their master. Under this august system of father-worship, males as well as females had become enslaved. The bondage of men, however, differed somewhat from the “perpetual tutelage of women,” in the fact that they themselves in time might become heads of families, and in that imperial position to assume the same authority and dominion over others as had been exercised over them. Women, however, could never become heads of families, and therefore could never hope to be free. So long as they remained single they were under the tutelage of their blood-relations, or were subject to the authority of some individual whom the father, before his death, might choose to appoint over them as guardian. Thus arose the law known as the Perpetual Tutelage of Women. Upon this subject Sir Henry Maine says: