Tutela was the ancient Roman concept of "guardianship", conceived of as a goddess in the Roman Empire, and from the earliest period as a functional role that various tutelary deities might play, particularly Juno. Tutela had particular applications in Roman law.
Legal 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.
Legal Latin distinguishes among several types of
tutela,
[Adolf Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law (American Philosophical Society, 1991 reprint), pp. 747–749.] including:
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tutela fiduciaria, fiduciary guardianship.
[Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, p. 747.]
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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.]
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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.]
Tutelae
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 Roman 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.]
Tutela and Imperial cult
The early
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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