Definition and Citations:
In Roman law. The term included “all the cognates who trace their connection exclusively through males. A table of cognates is formed by taking each lineal ancestor in turn and including all his descendants of both sexes in the tabular view. If, then, in tracing the various branches of such a genealogical table or tree, we stop whenever we come to the name of a female, and pursue that particular branch or ramification no further, all who remain after the descendants of women have been excluded are agnates, and their connection together is agnatic relationship.” Maine, Anc. Law, 142. All persons are agnatically connected together who are under the same patria potestas.