THE STATUS OF WQMEiV AND CHILDREN. 443 



lies having a common ancestor, and the united clusters of families form- 

 ing the early Aryan community. As Mommsen describes him, the 

 early Roman ruler, once in office, stood toward citizens in the same 

 relation that the father of the family did to wife, children, and slaves : 

 " The regal power had not, and could not have, any external checks 

 imposed upon it by law : the master of the community had no judge 

 of his acts within the community, any more than the house-father had 

 a judge within his household. Death alone terminated his power." 

 From this first stage, in which the political head was absolute, and 

 absoluteness of the domestic head went to the extent of life and death 

 power over his wife, the advance toward a higher status of women 

 was doubtless, as Sir Henry Maine contends, largely caused by that dis- 

 integration of the family which went along with the progressing union 

 of smaller societies into larger ones eifected by conquest. But though 

 successful militancy thus furthered female emancipation, it did so 

 only by thereafter reducing the relative amount of militancy ; and the 

 emancipation was really associated with an average increase of indus- 

 trial structures and activities. As before pointed out, militancy is to 

 be measured not so ranch by success in war as by the extent to which 

 it occupies the male population. Where all men are warriors, and the 

 work is done entirely by women, militancy is the greatest. The in- 

 troduction of a class of males who, joining in productive labor, lay 

 the basis for an industrial organization, qualifies the militancy. And 

 as the industrial class, at first consisting though it does Avholly of 

 slaves, increases in proportion to the militant class, the total activi- 

 ties of the society must be regarded as more industrial and less mili- 

 tant. In another way the same ti'uth is implied, if we consider that 

 when a number of small hostile societies are consolidated by triumph 

 of the stronger, the amount of fighting throughout the area occupied 

 becomes less, although the conflicts now from time to time arising 

 with neighboring larger aggregates may be on a greater scale. This 

 is clearly seen on comparing the ratio of fighting-men to population 

 among the early Romans with the ratio between the armies of the 

 empire and the number of people included in the empire. And there 

 is the further fact that the holding together of these compound and 

 doubly-compound societies eventually formed by conquest, and the 

 efficient cooperation of their parts for military purposes, itself im- 

 plies an increased development of the industrial organization. Great 

 armies carrying on operations at the periphery of a great territory, 

 imply a numerous working population, a considerable division of 

 labor, and good appliances for transferring supplies : the sustaining 

 and distributing systems must be well developed before large mili- 

 tant structures can be worked. So that this disintegration of the 

 patriarchal family, and consequent emancipation of women, whicli 

 went along with growth of the Roman Empire, really had for its con- 

 comitant a development of the industrial organization. 



