FATHER, a term of relation denoting a person who has begotten a child. By the laws of Romulus, a father had an unlimited power over his children. Amongst the Lacedæmonians, as we learn from Aristotle's Politics, the father of three children was excused from the duty of mounting guard for the security of the city; and the father of four children was exempted from every public burden. The Popæan law, amongst the Romans, granted many valuable privileges to the father of three children, one of which was, that he should be excused from civil offices, and that the mother should have liberty, in her father's lifetime, to make a will, and manage her estate without the authority of tutors.