I made a typo and that should have read “Patricide also was not typically…”. I have made the change. My contention would be that there was some reserve about putting children to death. There are historical instances, which you point out, but it was not typical for Romans to put children to death as the difficulties of child birth and the need to produce an heir would probably make it necessary to keep children alive as potential heirs. In cases of extreme behavior, there were also equally extreme measures taken. Filicide would have been supported and protected under Roman law, no doubt and that is something we discussed, but it doesn’t seem to me to be something that was employed regularly. If that is the case, as you suggest, I would like to learn more about that as that would definitely provide a completely different perspective for my students. Thanks again for the comment though – very insightful!

Filicide is the act of killing one’s own child and was not frowned upon by the Romans. For example, Antonia Minor famously starved her daughter, Livilla, to death after it was revealed she’d had an affair with the disgraced Praetorian Prefect, Sejanus, and poisoned her husband, Drusus Minor (son of Tiberius). The emperor Augustus banished his daughter Julia to die in exile for “immoral behavior” and sent orders to have his already exiled grandson, Posthumous Agrippa, beheaded upon his own death (so as he wouldn’t threaten the legitimacy of the rule of Tiberius).

In fact, the right of “exposure” was often employed by the “pater familias”. Every baby born in Rome was presented to his father for acceptance. If the baby was deformed or weak or if the father had any doubts as to whether or not he was really the father, the child was left on the steps of a pagan temple to be eaten by stray dogs. Children were also exposed if they were unfortunate enough to be born on a “black day” (i.e. days of national tragedy like the death of Julius or Augustus Caesar). Parents were actually encouraged to expose children born on those days to avert whatever displeasure they might receive from the gods.