zum suorum bonorum in testamento dispositio data erat, quare non similiter ei, quemadmodum alias res, ita et de servis suis in ultima voluntate disponere, quemadmodum voluerit, permittimus, ut et libertatem eis possit præstare? Sed cum libertas ihæstimabilis 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?

1

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 li berty by testament. For since, by for mer 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 service to themselves also, by having the liberty of enfranchising their own slaves.

dominorum, ejusdem principis constitutione, coercetur: nam Antoninus, consultus à quibusdam præsidibus provinciarum de his servis, qui ad ædem sacram vel statuam principum confugiunt, præcepit, ut, si intolerabilis videatur sævitia dominorum, cogantur servos suos bonis conditionibus vendere, ut pretium dominis daretur; et rectè: expedit enim reipublicæ, ne suà re quis male utatur. Cujus rescripti, ad Ælium Martianum missi, verba sunt hæc. Dominorum quidem potestatem in servos illibatam esse oportet, nec cuiquam hominum jus suum detrahi. Sed et dominorum interest, ne auxilium contra sævitiam, vel famem, vel intolerabilem injuriam, denegetur iis, qui juste deprecantur. Ideoque cognosce de querelis eorum, qui ex familia Julii Sabini ad sacram statuam confugerunt; et, si vel durius habitos, quam æquum est, vel infami injuria affectos esse, cognoveris, venire jube; ita ut in potestatem domini non revertantur: quod si meæ constitutioni fraudem fecerit, sciat, me hoc admissum adversus se eeverius executurum.

by another constitution of Antoninus who being consulted by certain governors of provinces concerning slaves, who take sanctuary either in temples, or at the statues of the emperors, Ordained, that if the severity of masters should appear excessive, they might be compelled to make sale of their slaves upon equitable terms, so that the masters might receive the value; and properly; inasmuch as it is for the public good; that no one should be permitted to misuse even his own property. The words of this re-cript, sent to Elius Martianus, are these.-The power of masters over their slaves ought to be protected: nor ought any man to be deprived of his just right. But it is for the interest of all masters, that relief against crueltics, the denial of sustenance, or any other insufferable injury, should be grant ed to those who justly implore it. Therefore look into the complaints made by the family of Julius Sabinus, whose slaves took sanctuary at the sacred statue; and, if proof be. made that they have been too hardly treated, or greatly injured, order them to be forthwith sold, so that they be no longer subject to their former master: and, if Julius Sabinus attempt to evade our constitution, let him know, that I shall put it in force against him with more severity.

JUSTAS autem nuptias inter se cives Romani contrahunt, qui secundum præcepta legum coeunt, masculi quidem puberes, fœminæ autem viri potentes; sive patres familiarum sint ; sive filii familiarum; dum tamen, si filii familiarum sint, consensum habeant parentum, quorum in potestate sunt: napa, hoc fieri debere, et civilis et naturalis ratio suadet, in tantum, ut jussus parentis præcedere debeat. Unde quæsitum est, an furiosi filia nubere, aut furiosi filius uxorem ducere, possit? Cumque super filio variabatur, nostra processit decisio, quà permissum est ad exemplum filiæ furiosi, filium quoque furiosi posse, et sine patris interventu, matrimonium sibi copulare, secundùm datum ex nostrá constitutione modum.

The citizens of Rome contract valid matrimony, when they fol low the precepts of the law; males, when they arrive at puberty, and females, when they attain to a marriageable age. The males, whether patres familiarum, fathers of a family, or filii familiarum, sons of a family; but, if they are sons of a family, they must first obtain the consent of the parents, under whose power they are. For reason, both natural and civil, convinces us, that the consent of parents should precede marriage; hence arose the question, whether the son of a madman could contract matrimony? But opinions being various, we decided that the son, as well as the daughter of a madman, may marry without intervention of the father, provided the rules of our constitution are observed.

De cognatis, ac primum de

§ 1. We may not marry any woman; for with some, marriage is forbidden. Matrimony must not be contracted between parents and their children, as between a father and daughter, a grandfather and his grand-daughter, a mother and her son, a grand-mother and her grand