The Roman family, or familia, was the fundamental building block of the state, and the law took a deep and abiding interest in its structure and continuity. The legal power of the paterfamilias was immense, but Roman law also developed sophisticated rules for other key family matters, most notably adoption and emancipation. This episode enters the Roman household to examine its legal framework. We explore the practice of adoption, which was a crucial tool for the Roman elite, used not to provide a home for a child but to ensure a male heir to continue the family name and inherit the estate. We also investigate emancipation, the formal legal act by which a paterfamilias could voluntarily release a son from his authority, making him legally independent. These laws show that the Roman family was as much a legal and economic unit as it was a social one. The ability to legally create and dissolve the bonds of paternal power provided the flexibility that the Roman aristocracy needed to navigate the treacherous worlds of politics and inheritance.