The word pater comes to us from Latin roots, from the voice “pater”. The term pater has two possible meanings according to various sources, where one of them refers to that Catholic figure who is called Priest, who is the person who dedicates himself and consecrates himself to the church and its functions through tasks proper to that pastoral ministry. The other possible meaning of the word comes from the times of Ancient Rome, to describe that figure or individual who exercised power over a certain family, that is, that person who was the head of the family, this was also called by the name from pater familia, which when translated into our language is equivalent to "father of a family".
In Ancient Rome, this character who was called pater was an independent citizen (homo sui iuris), who had the authority and dominion over everything and everyone who lived in his house. He also had a special legal capacity to do what he wanted or act according to his will or "sui iuris" and exercise parental authority or "la manus", "dominica potestas" and "mancipium" regarding the children as well as the remains of the "alieni iuris" people who were under his dominion and mandate, that is, on married women, slaves and others.
That power that the pater de familia possessed was awarded as “patria potestas”, which in our language we know as parental authority. This power was different from the auctoritas, which is also enjoyed by the pater. According to the law of the XII tables, this important figure and head of the family had the power of life or death or as he was described at that time "vitae necisque potestas" over his wife, children and slaves who were under his dominion or mandate.
