Augustus's legislation on the morality of marriage co-opted the traditional "potestas" of the "pater familias". Augustus was not only Rome's "princeps" but also its father ("pater patriae"). As such, he was responsible for the entire Roman "familia". Rome's survival required that citizens produce children. That could not be left to individual conscience. The falling birth rate was considered a marker of degeneracy and self-indulgence, particularly among the elite, who were supposed to set an example. "Lex Julia maritandis ordinibus" compelled marriage upon men and women within specified age ranges and remarriage on the divorced and bereaved within certain time limits. The "Lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis" severely penalised adulterous wives and any husbands who tolerated such behaviour. The "Lex Papia Poppaea" extended and modified the laws in relation to intermarriage between social classes and inheritance. Compliance was rewarded and exceptional public duty brought exemption, but dictatorial compulsion was deeply unpopular and quite impractical. The laws were later softened in theory and practise, but the imperial "quaestio perpetua" remained. Its public magistrates now legally over-rode the traditional rights of the family "concilium" and "pater familias". The principate shows a clear trend towards the erosion of individual "patria potestas" and the increasing intrusion of the state into the juridical and executive independence of the "familia" under its "pater".