YOUTH AND POLITICS DURING THE ROMAN REPUBLIC
Every generation of young people is in large measure formed by its environment (1). In a less differentiated society the transition from childhood to manhood takes place with little conflict. When the young man reaches sexual maturity, he immediately acquires real responsibility, fulfills his duty as an adult and is considered a full- fledged member of society. But when society shows a more intricate pattern — as was soon the case in Roman history — youth is refused important tasks. The older generation fears the inexperience and audacity of the adolescent and also wants to safeguard its own position.
In Rome the young man of the upper classes had a particular status. At about the age of sixteen, he accepted the toga virilis and received his civil rights. According to civil law, however, he remained subjected to the patria potestas as long as his father lived ; if the latter had died, he remained under guardianship until the age of twenty-five. During the Late Republic he had to wait until the age of twenty-eight or thirty before he could be admitted to the quaestorship, the lowest office of the cursus honorum (2) . It is obvious that even be-
(1) See, e.g., H. Remple in, Die seelische Entwicklung des Menschen im Kindes- und Jugend' alter, München, 1963 n, p. 364 : aber seinem Wesen nach ist die Entwicklung zur Persönlichkeit ein KuUurprozess dessen Eintritt, Art, Ausmass und Tempo von den geistigen Einwirkungen der Mit- und Kulturwelt abhängt. — Λη important tendency in contemporary psychology and sociology defends the extreme point of view that the nature of youth is exclusively determined by social and cultural factors. See e.g. A. Kriekemans, Geschiedenis van dejeugdpsy- chologie, Tielt, 1967, p. 15, 285 ff., 297 ff.
(2) On the date of adoption of the toga virilis, see J. Marquardt, Das Privatleben der Römer, 2 vol., Leipzig, 1886 2, I, p. 123 if. On the institution of the cura, see A. Berger, Mi-
