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De libertinorum divisione sublata.

III. Libertinorum autem status tripertitus antea fuerat: nam, qui manumittebantur, modo majorem et justam libertatem consequebantur, et fiebant cives Romani; modo minorem, et Latini ex lege Junia Norbana fiebant; modo inferiorem, et fiebant ex lege Ælia Sentia Dedititii sed quoniam Dedititiorum quidem pessima conditio, jam ex multis temporibus in desuetudinem abierat; Latinorum vero nomen non frequentabatur; ideoque nostra pietas, omnia augere et in meliorem statum reducere desiderans, duabus constitutionibus hoc emendavit, et in pristinum statum reduxit: quia et à primis urbis Romæ cunabulis una atque simplex libertas competebat, id est, eadem, quam, habebat manumissor; nisi quod, scilicet, libertinus sit, qui manumittitur, licet manumissor ingenuus sit; et Dedititios quidem per constitutionem nostram expulimus, quam promulgavimus inter nostras decisiones; per quas, suggerente nobis Triboniano viro excelso quæstore nostro, antiqui juris altercationes placavimus. Latinos autem Junianos, et omnem, quæ circa eos fuerat, observantiam, alia constitutione, per ejusdem quæstores suggestionem, correximus, quæ inter imperiales radiat sanctiones; et omnes libertos, (nullo, nec ætatis manumissi, nec domini manumittentis, nec in manumissionis modo, discrimine habito, sicuti antea ob

servabatur,) civitate Romanâ de

3. Freedmen were formerly distinguished by a threefold division. Those, who were manumitted, sometimes obtained the greater liberty, and became Roman citizens; sometimes only the lesser, and became Latins, under the law Junia Norbana; and sometimes only the inferior liberty, and became Dedititii, by the law Elia Sentia. But, the condition of the Dedititii differing but little from slavery, has been long disused; neither has the name of Latins been frequent. Our piety therefore, leading us to reduce all things into a better state, we have amended our laws by two constitutions, and re-established the antient usage; for antiently liberty was simple and undivided; that is, it was conferred upon the slave, as his manumittor possessed it; admitting this single difference, that the person manumitted became only a Freedman, although his manumittor was a Freeman.

We have abolished the Dedititii by a constitution published among our decisions, by which, at the instance of Tribonian, our Quæstor, we have suppressed all disputes concerning the antient law. We have also, at his suggestion, altered the condition of the Latins and corrected the laws, which related to them, by another constitution, conspicuous among the imperial sanctions; and we have made all the freed-men in general citizens of Rome, regarding neither the age of

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Prius caput legis Eliæ, de manumittente in fraudem credi

torum.

NON tamen cuicunque volenti manumittere licet: nam is, qui in fraudem creditorum manumittit, nihil agit: quia lex Elia Sentia impedit libertatem.

De servo instituto

SI. Licet autem domino, qui solvendo non est, in testamento servum suum cum libertate hæredem instituere, ut liber fiat, hæresque ei solus et necessarius, si modo ei nemo alius, ex eo testamento, hæres extiterit: aut quia nemo hæres scriptus sit, aut quia is, qui scriptus est, quâlibet ex causâ hæres ei non extiterit. Idque eâdem lege Ælia Sentia provisum est, et rectè. Valdè enim prospiciendum erat, ut egentes homines, quibus alius hæres extiturus non esset, vel servum suum necessarium hæredem haberent, qui satisfacturus esset creditoribus: aut,

Every master may not manumit of will: for if done with intent to defraud his creditors, it is void. The law Elia Sentia restraining this liberty.

cum libertate.

§ 1. A master, who is insolvent, may appoint a slave to be his heir with liberty, that thus the slave may obtain his freedom, and become the only and necessary heir of the testator, provided no other person is also heir by the same testament; and this may happen, either because no other person was instituted heir or because the person, so instituted, is unwilling to act. This privilege of masters was for wise reasons established by the law Elia Sentia: for it became necessary to provide, that indigent men, to whom no man would be a voluntary heir, might have a slave for a neces

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3. Manumission is in fraud of creditors, if the master is insolvent, when he manumits, or become so by manumitting. It is however the prevailing opinion, that liberty, when granted, is not impeached, unless the manumittor meant to defraud, although his goods are insufficient for the payment of his creditors; for men frequently hope better, than their circumstances really are. We therefore understand liberty to be then only impeded, when creditors are doubly defrauded: by the intention of the manumittor, and in reality.

Alteru caput legis Eliæ Sentiæ de minore viginti annis.

IV. Eâdem lege Elia Sentia, domino minori viginti annis non alitur manumittere premittitur, quam si vindictâ apud consilium, justâ causâ manumissionis approbata, fuerint manumissi.

$4. By the same law Elia Sentia, a master, under the age of twenty years, cannot manumit, unless for some good reason, to be approved by a council; and then by the vindicta.

Quæ sunt justæ causæ manumissionis. SV. Justæ autem causæ manumissionis sunt; veluti si quis patrem aut matrem, filium filiamve, aut fratres, sororesve naturales, aut pædagogum, aut nutricem, aut educatorem, aut alumnum alumnamve, aut collectaneum manumittat; aut servum, procuratoris habendi gratiâ; aut ancillam, matrimonii habendi causâ; dum tamem infra sex menses in uxcrem ducatur, nisi justa causa impediat et servus, qui manumittitur, procuratoris habendi gratiâ, non minor decem et septem annis manumittatur.

$5. Just reasons for manumission, are that the person to be manumitted is father or mother to the manumittor, his son or daughter, his brother or sister, his preceptor, his nurse, his foster child, or his foster brother; or to constitute him his proctor; or his bond-woman, with an intent to marry her, provided the marriage is performed within six months. But a slave who is to be constituted proctor, cannot be manumitted for that purpose, if under se

venteen.

De causa semel probata. SVI. Semel autem causa approbata, sive vera sit, sive falsa,

non retractatur.

$6. A reason once admitted in favor of liberty, be it true or false, cannot be recalled.

Abrogatio posterioris capitis legis Eliæ Sentiæ.

§ VII. Cum ergo certus modus manumittendi minoribus viginti annis dominis per legem Æliam Sentiam constitutus esset, eveniebat, ut, qui quatuordecem annos expleverat, licet testamentum facere, et in eo sibi hæredem instituere, legataque relinquere, posset, tamen, si adhuc minor esset viginti annis, libertatem servo dare non posset; quod non erat ferendum: nam, cui toto

$7. When certain bounds were prescribed by the law Elia Sentia to all minors under twenty, with regard to manumission, it was observed that any person who had completed fourteen years, might make a testament, institute an heir, and bequeath legacies, and yet that no person, under twenty, could confer liberty; which was not longer to be tolerated: for can any just cause be assigned, why

rum suorum bonorum in testamento dispositio data erat, quare non similiter ei, quemadmodum alias res, ita et de servis suis in ultimâ voluntate disponere, quemadmodum voluerit, permittimus, ut et libertatem eis possit præstare? Sed cum libertas inestimabilis res sit, et propter hoc ante vigesimum ætatis annum antiquitas libertatem servo dare prohibebat; ideo nos, mediam quodammodo viam eligentes, non aliter minori viginti annis libertatem in testamento dare servo suo concedimus, nisi septemdecimum annum impleverit, et octodecimum attigerit. Cum enim antiquitas hujusmodi ætati et pro aliis postulare concesserit, cur non etiam sui judicii stabilitas ita eos adjuvare credatur, ut ad libertatem dandam servis suis possint pervenire?

a man, permitted to dispose of all his effects, by testament, should be debarred from enfranchising his slaves But liberty being of inestimable value and our ancient laws prohibiting any person to make a grant of it, who is under twenty years of age, we therefore make choice of a middle way, and permit all, who have attained their eighteenth year, to confer liberty by testament. For since, by former practice, persons at eighteen years of age were permited to plead for their clients, there is no reason, why the same stability of judgment, which qualifies them to assist others, should not enable them to be of service to themselves also, by having the liberty of enfranchising their own slaves.

TITULUS SEPTIMUS.

DE LEGE FUSIA CANINIA TOLLENDA.

C. vii. T. 3.

LEGE Fusia Caninia, certus modus constitutus erat in servis testamento manumittendis; quam, quasi libertates impedientem et quodammodò invidam, tollendam esse censuimus: cum satis fuerat inhumanum, vivos quidem licentiam habere totam suam familiam libertatem donare, nisi alia causa impediat libertatem; morientibus autem hujusmodi licentiam adimere.

By the law Fusia Caninia, masters were limited in manumitting by testament; we have thought proper to abrogate this law as odious and destructive of liberty; judging it inhuman, that persons in health should have power to manumit a whole family, if no just cause forbid, and that the dying should be prohibited from doing the same.

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