tutela

Under Roman law, there were several forms of tutela ("guardianship" or "tutelage"), mainly for people such as minors and women who ordinarily in Roman society would be under the legal protection and control of a paterfamilias, but who for whatever reasons were sui iuris, legally emancipated. The guardian who oversaw their interests was a tutor. Latin legal terminology distinguishes among several types of tutela,Adolf Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law (American Philosophical Society, 1991 reprint), pp. 747–749. including:

• tutela fiduciaria, fiduciary guardianship.Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, p. 747.
• tutela impuberum, guardianship for minors who were emancipated from the legal control (potestas) of a paterfamilias or head of household.Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, p. 747.
• tutela mulierum, guardianship of emancipated women, generally those whose fathers had died. In the "core period" of Roman history (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD), a married woman did not enter into the potestas of her husband, and remained legally a part of her birth family. The appointment of a tutor was meant to ensure that her interests and those of her family were protected, particularly in matters of property rights, since the ownership of property by married people remained separate. On occasion, a woman who wanted her husband to manage her property might have him appointed tutor.Jane Gardner, Family and Familia in Roman Law and Life (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 52ff. et passim.

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File:Protective Goddess Tutela from the Macon treasure 150-220 AD (51233371506).jpg in her right hand, Apollo and Diana in a twinned cornucopia in her left hand, with the twins Castor and Pollux on either side of her head, and bearing on her wings the seven deities of the days of the week (Saturn, Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus), from the Mâcon treasure (AD 150-220)]]

The tutela or tutelary deity was fundamental to archaic Roman religion. The capacity for offering protection or guardianship was a basic function of deity, expressed by formulations such as Tutela Iovis, "the tutelage of Jove".Harold Lucius Axtell, The Deification of Abstract Ideas in Roman Literature and Inscriptions (University of Chicago, 1907), p. 40. Major deities such as Jupiter, Minerva, and Mars were conceived of as tutelaries.on Mars, Vincent J. Rosivach, "Mars, the Lustral God," Latomus 42.3 (1983), pp. 519–521. The phrase in tutela expressed the sphere of influence exercised by a deity. For instance, trees of ill omen (arbores infelices) were in the tutela of the gods below (di inferi).Rabun Taylor, "Roman Oscilla: An Assessment," RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 48 (2005), p. 86. The initiatory grades of the Mithraic mysteries seem to have each had a tutelary deity.Howard M. Jackson, "The Meaning and Function of the Leontocephaline in Roman Mithraism," Numen 32.1 (1985), p. 33.

The cities of ancient Italy characteristically had a tutela, who in many places was Juno. The true name of the deity was theoretically kept secret, to prevent an enemy from enacting a ritual "calling out" (evocatio) the tutelary and rendering the city vulnerable.Jörg Rüpke, The Religion of the Romans (Polity Press, 2007, originally published 2001 in German), p. 132. If the identity of a deity whose protection was desired was unknown, an altar might be inscribed with an open-ended invocation such as "to the tutelary god".Axtel, The Deification of Abstract Ideas, p. 40. The individual goddess Tutela may have evolved from this abstraction. She appears often in inscriptions, particularly in Gaul, but only rarely in literature.Axtel, The Deification of Abstract Ideas, pp. 42–43. She is often linked invoked with the Genius to assure a full range of protection, and became a regular part of household cult along with the Lares and Penates.Axtel, The Deification of Abstract Ideas, pp. 40–41; J. Rufus Fears, "The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.17.2 (1981, pp. 900–901. She might also be paired with Fortuna.Axtel, The Deification of Abstract Ideas, p. 42. Tutor or tutator might be masculine epithets for gods in a specifically tutelary function: Iuppiter tutor or Hercules tutator.Axtel, The Deification of Abstract Ideas, p. 42.

{{See also|Imperial cult (ancient Rome)}}

The early Roman emperors drew on traditional sources of authority to consolidate their position, among them the potestas or power of the Roman head of household. Tutela or guardianship was another available form of authority, advertised as Tutela Augusti, the tutelage of Augustus.Fears, "The Cult of Virtues," pp. 900–901. In the Imperial period the goddess Tutela received her own distinct cultus in the form of rituals and temples.Fear, "The Cult of Virtues," p. 900. The Flavian dynasty in particular cultivated Tutela.Michael Grant, Roman Anniversary Issues (Cambridge University Press, 1950), p. 89. On a coin of 71 AD, Tutela is represented by a woman with two children.Fears, "The Cult of Virtues," p. 900.

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• [https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?partid=1&assetid=547480&objectid=465816 Silver figurine of Tutela] and [https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/gr/s/silver_figurine_of_tutela.aspx Highlights] at the British Museum

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Category:Roman goddesses

Category:Personifications in Roman mythology

Category:Roman law

Category:Tutelary deities