In Rome, the person in charge of adoption was the male head of the household called the paterfamilias. Adoption would result in an adoption of power for the adopted child as the status of the adopting family was immediately transferred to the child. This was almost always an increase in power due to the high cost of adoption. Publius Clodius Pulcher famously used this loophole for political power in his attempt to gain control over the plebs. During the Roman Republic, the same laws stood in place with only one difference; the requirement of the Senate's approval.