Captatio in law, life and literature : a study of the topos of inheritance-hunting in the context of Roman testamentary legislation and social practice

"Captatio and the captator are stock elements of literature and undoubtedly existed in life, but as actual practice and figure in Roman society they are nearly impossible to identify" (Champlin 1989: 212). Captatio (inheritancehunting), as it appears in Latin literature, can be defined as the systematic courtship of elderly, preferably sickly or dying, childless wealthy people by social adventurers known as captatores, with the aim of gaining inheritances from these people by will. The methods by which this is shown to be achieved include gift-giving, salutatio, sexual favours, flattery etc. Roman literature suggests that this practice often took place within the exchange network of amicitia. This thesis examines captatio, as presented in the Latin literature of the early Empire, in the context of definable legal and social structures. It is not so much the purpose of this study to decide whether captatio existed or was a purely literary conceit, as to examine this literary topos in its broader context.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Classical Studies

Year dc:date.issued

1991

Author dc:creator

• Sharland, Suzanne

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Coleman, K M

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18255

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18255