Tragedy

Even Roman history isn't deprived of any tragedy. Although we cannot always see the tragedy the same way the Romans did, we feel sympathy. One of the most famous adoption tragedies is linked to the Scipiones:

 
The daughter of the L. Aemilius Paullus, consul in 219 and 216, Aemilia Tertia, married Scipio Africanus. Together they had four children, two boys, Publius (P. Scipio Afr.f.) and Lucius (L. Scipio Afr.f.), and two girls, the Corneliae (major and minor).
Aemilia Tertia's brother – also called L. Aemilius Paullus, consul in 182 and 168 – and his wives (he was married twice) had also four children, four sons this time. Because four sons qua legacy isn't very practical, two sons were relinquished for adoption. The youngest is adopted as P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus by P. Scipio Afr.f.; the oldest as Q. Fabius Maximus Aemilianus by Q. Fabius Maximus, the son or possible grand-son of Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, a famous general during the Second Punic War. We do not know their names from when they were still Aemilii. His two remaining sons died in their teens. Poor Aemilius in the end died without any legal (male) heirs. His two adopted sons did inherit, but by testament.