§ 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 Elia 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 ejus-. dem quæstores suggestionem, correximus, que inter imperiales radiat sanctiones; et omnes libertos, (nullo, nec ætatis manumissi, nec domini manumittentis, nec in manumissionis modo, discrimine habito, sicuti antea observabatur,) civitate Romana decoravimus, multis mo

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 onlythe inferior liberty, and became Dedititii, by the law Elia Sentia. But, the condi tion of the Dedititii differing but little from slavery, has been long disused; neither has the name of Latins been frequent. Our piety there- + fore, 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 up. on the slave, as his manumittor, possessed it; admitting this single differ ence, 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 Quastor, we have f 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 ci tizens of Rome, regarding neither the age of the manumitted, nor of the manumittor, nor the antient forms of

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dis additis, per quos possit libertas servis cum civitate Romana, quæ sola est in præsenti, præstari. U

manumission. We have also intro duced many new methods, by which slaves may become Roman citizens ; the only liberty that can now be conferred.

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

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

§ I. 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 ci ne mo alius, ex eo testamento, hæres extiterit: aut quia nemo hæres scriptus sit, aut quia is, qui scriptus est, qualibet ex causâ hæres ei non extiterit. Idque eâdem lege Elia 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 saisfacturus esset creditoribus: aut,

Je quis manumittens.

§ 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 neckssary to provide, that indigent men,to whom no man would be a voluntary heir, might have a slave for a neces-,

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 etatis 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?

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permitted to dispose of all his effects,q 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 attain. ed their eighteenth year, to confer li berty by testament. For since, by former practice, persons at eighteen years of age were permitted 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 ser vice to themselves also, by having the liberty of enfranchising their own slaves.