The Institution of Slavery

All persons, in the eyes of the law, were either free (liberi) or slaves (servi).^{^[118]} Slavery could arise in a number of ways, the principal of these being birth from a slave woman,^{^[119]} capture in war^{^[120]} and as a punishment.

A slave was considered to be both a person (persona) and a form of property (res) legally existing as the object rather than the subject of rights and duties. As he was the property of his master (dominus), a slave lacked legal capacity and this theoretically entitled the master to govern the slave as he pleased.name="_ftnref120" title="">^{^[121]} A slave could not contract a lawful Roman marriage, had no standing in the courts and their offspring immediately became the property of the slave's master. However, slaves had limited contractual capacity attached to the condition that whatever they acquired accrued to their masters.^{^[122]} It should be noted also that initially a slave could not impose legal duties on his master by his actions. From the republican period, however, the praetor could intervene and grant certain praetorian actions, labelled actiones adiecticiae qualitatis (such as the actio de peculio and the actio de in rem verso), against the master and in favour of third persons who had entered into dealings with a slave. Furthermore, a master could be rendered liable for the delicts of his slave on the grounds of an actio noxalis.

Slavery could end with the formal liberation of the slave by his master (manumissio iusta ac legitima), or be terminated informally or by legislative enactment. There were three forms of manumissio: vindicta, censu and testamento.^{^[123]}As the earliest and most common method for freeing a slave, manumissio vindicta related to the formal legal process that determined whether a person was free or a slave and consisted of the master publicly pronouncing before a magistrate that the slave was free. A slave's liberation was effected by manumissio censu when, at the request of the master, the slave was formally enrolled in the list of Roman citizens (cives Romani).

Manumissio testamento involved a slave's liberation through the testamentary disposition of the slave's master. In such a case, the slave could become free immediately after the acceptance of the inheritance by the heir or following the fulfilment of certain conditions stipulated by the testator. The liberation of a slave could be informally arranged when a master, in the presence of witnesses, declared his slave to be free (manumissio inter amicos), or when he expressed such a wish in a letter (manumissio per epistulam), or when he shared his table with the slave (manumissio per mensam). Although these methods of liberation provided little security for the slave, if he could prove that the relevant actions transpired he could then refuse to return to slavery by appealing to the praetor.^{^[124]}

Liberated slaves or freedmen (libertini, liberti) were Roman citizens, but enjoyed fewer social and political rights than those with no slaves in their ancestry.^{^[125]}A large part of Rome's urban proletariat consisted of liberated slaves, whose rapid increase provoked the unease of free-born citizens.^{^[126]} Nevertheless, a large number of freedmen were able to earn a steady income through their involvement in trade, industry and the arts. Many progressed to occupy influential positions in public life, especially in the last century of the Republic and during the period of the Principate.

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Source: Mousourakis G.. Fundamentals of Roman Private Law. Springer, 2012.— 366 p.. 2012

The Institution of Slavery

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