This practice seemed to be a common occurrence in ancient Rome, being used to claim birthright status to a Roman father's wealth and prestige, and rules were instituted to ensure that the children claimed by the wife were the legitimate children of the husband, or ex-husband, in some cases.
[1] This was a common concern in the classical period as there were dealers in supposititious children who would provide them for a fee.
[2] While Roman wives could own property of their own via the dowry system or inheritance, women had no legal standing to participate in public or political life.
[6] Most societies were patrilineal, and the blood link to the father had to be established for the child to lay claim to the inheritance or, at the very least, the paternity could not be in doubt.
With the introduction of DNA tests, men can request a medical procedure to gain incontrovertible truth about a child’s paternity.