Augustus Gave Parents Legal Privileges

Augustus, the first Roman emperor (27 BC-AD 14) was worried about declining birth rates among the upper classes in Rome, and introduced incentives to encourage people to have more children. The jus trium liberorum was a Roman law that provided tax advantages and exemption from compulsory services to citizens with at least three children, or freedpeople with at least four. Qualified women could avoid legal guardianship by male relatives, and could get inheritances that otherwise would have gone to their children. But the Romans soon found loopholes, and emperors began granting the privilege for good deeds, military service or personal favors, until Justinian abolished it in 534 AD.

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