Sed et, si quis ex matre nascitur libera, patre verò servo, ingenuus nihilominus nascitur: quemadmodum, qui ex matre libera et incerto, patre natus est: quoniam vulgò conceptus est. Sufficit autem, liberam fuisse matrem eo tempore, quo nascitur, licet ancilla conceperit: et, è contrario, si libera conceperit, deinde ancilla facta pariat, placuit eum, qui nascitur, liberum nasci: quia non debet calamitas matris ei nocere, qui in ventre est. Ex his illud quæsitum est, si ancilla prægnans manumissa sit, deinde ancilla postea facta pepererit, liberum an servum pariat ? Et Martianus probat, liberum nasci: sufficit enim ei, qui in utero est, liberam matrem vel medio tempore habuisse, ut liber nascatur; quod et verum est,

mother, altho' the father be a slave, or unknown, is free: notwithstanding he was conceived discreditably. And if the mother is free at the time of the birth, although a bond-woman when she conceived, the infant will be free. Also if a woman, free at conception, becomes a slave and is delivered, her child, is nevertheless free born; for the misfortune of the mother ought not to prejudice her unborn infant. It has been a question, whether the child of a woman, who is made free dur ing pregnancy, but becomes bond be fore delivery, would be free born? Martianus proves the affirmative s for, he deems it sufficient to the unborn child, if the mother hath been free at any time between conception and delivery; and this is true.

servitute manumissi sunt. Manumissio autem est de manu datio:

been manumitted from just servitude. Manumission, manu-datio, implies

quamdiu aliquis in servitute est, manui et potestati suppositus est et manumissus liberatur à domini potestate: quæ res a jure gentium originem sumpsit ; utpote cum jure naturali omnes liberi nascerentur; nec esset nota manumissio, cum servitus esset incognita. Sed, post quam jure gentium servitus ingenui, tatem invasit, secutum est beneficium manumissionis: et, cum uno conmuni nomine omnes homines appel larentur, jure gentium tria hominum genera esse cœperunt : liberi ; et his contrarium, servi; et tertium genus, libertini ; qui desierant esse servi.

Quibus modis

§ I. Multis autem modis manumissio procedit: aut enim ex sacris constitutionibus in sacrosanctis ecclesiis, aut vindictâ, aut inter amicos, aut per epistolam, aut per testamentum, aut per aliam quamlibet ultimam voluntatem. Sed et aliis multis modis libertas servo competere potest, qui tam ex veteribus, quam ex nostris constitutionibus, introducti sunt.

Ubi et quando

§ II. Servi vero à dominis semper manumitti solent, adeo ut vel in transitu manumittantur ; veluti cum prætor, aut præses, aut proconsul, in balneum, vel in theatrum eunt,

the giving of liberty; for whoever is in servitude, is subject to the hand and power of another; but whoever is manumitted, is free from both.

Manumission took its rise from the law of nations; for all men by the law of nature are born free; nar was manumission heard of while servitude was unknown. But when servitude, under sanction of the law of nations, invaded liberty, the benefit of manumission became then a consequence. For all men at first were denominated by one common appellation, 'till, by the law of nations, they began to be divided into three classes, viz. into liberi, or freemen, servi, or slaves, and libertini, freed men who have ceased to be slaves.

manumittatur,

1. Manumission is effected by various ways; either in the face of the church, according to the imperial constitutions, or by the vindicta, or in the presence of friends, or by letter, or by testament, or by any other last will. Liberty may also be conferred upon a slave by diverse other methods, some of which were introduced by former laws, and others by

our own.

nomen

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 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 decision.es; 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, (aullo, 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 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 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 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 unother constitution, conspicuous among the imperial sanctions: and we have made all the freed-men in general citizens of Rome, regarding neither the age of the manumitted, nor of the manumittor, nor the antient forms of

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 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 saisfacturus caset creditoribus: aut,

§ 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