In the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

, the ''dediticii'' were one of the three classes of '' libertini''. The ''dediticii'' existed as a class of persons who were neither slaves, nor Roman citizens ''(cives)'', nor ''

Latini The Latins (Latin: ''Latini''), sometimes known as the Latians, were an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome (see Roman people). From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small region known to the Romans a ...

'' (that is, those holding

Latin rights Latin rights (also Latin citizenship, Latin: ''ius Latii'' or ''ius latinum'') were a set of legal rights that were originally granted to the Latins (Latin: "Latini", the People of Latium, the land of the Latins) under Roman law in their origin ...

), at least as late as the time of

Ulpian Ulpian (; la, Gnaeus Domitius Annius Ulpianus; c. 170223? 228?) was a Roman jurist born in Tyre. He was considered one of the great legal authorities of his time and was one of the five jurists upon whom decisions were to be based according to ...

. The civil status of ''dediticii'' was analogous to the condition of a conquered people who did not individually lose their freedom, but as a community lost all political existence as the result of a ''deditio'', an unconditional surrender. A person who became a subject of the Empire through a ''deditio'' (that is, a person who was a ''dediticius'') was excluded from the universal citizenship extended to all freeborn inhabitants of the empire under the ''

Constitutio Antoniniana The ''Constitutio Antoniniana'' (Latin for: "Constitution r Edictof Antoninus") (also called the Edict of Caracalla or the Antonine Constitution) was an edict issued in AD 212, by the Roman Emperor Caracalla. It declared that all free men in t ...

''. The ''

Lex Aelia Sentia ''Lex Aelia Sentia'' was a law established in ancient Rome in 4 AD. It was one of the laws that the Roman assemblies had to pass (after they were asked to do so by emperor Augustus). This law (as well as '' Lex Fufia Caninia''), has made limitation ...

'' provided that, if a slave was put in bonds by his master as a punishment, or branded, or put to the torture for an offence and convicted, or delivered up to fight with wild beasts, or sent into a

gladiator A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...

ial school (''

ludus Ludus may refer to: * ''Ludus'' (ancient Rome) (plural ''ludi''), several meanings around "play, game, sport, training" **''Ludi'', public games held for the benefit and entertainment of the Roman people * Luduș, a town in Transylvania, Romania ...

''), or put in confinement (''custodia''), and then

manumitted Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that ...

either by his then owner, or by another owner, he merely acquired the status of a '' peregrinus dediticius'', and had not even the privileges of the ''

ius Latinum Latin rights (also Latin citizenship, Latin: ''ius Latii'' or ''ius latinum'') were a set of legal rights that were originally granted to the Latins (Latin: "Latini", the People of Latium, the land of the Latins) under Roman law in their origi ...

''. The ''peregrini dediticii'' were those who, in former times, had taken up arms against the Roman people, and being conquered, had surrendered themselves. They were, in fact, a people who were absolutely subdued, and yielded unconditionally to the conquerors, and, of course, had no other relation to Rome than that of subjects. The form of ''deditio'' occurs in Livy. ''Dediticii'' who were former slaves were perceived as a threat to society, regardless of whether their master's punishments had been justified, and if they came within a hundred miles of Rome, they were subject to reenslavement.Jane F. Gardner, "Slavery and Roman Law," in ''The Cambridge World History of Slavery'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011), vol. 1, p. 429.

Sources

*Long, George. 1875
"Dediticii".
''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities''. William Smith, ed. (London: John Murray), p. 388.

References

{{Reflist Roman law Social classes in ancient Rome Slavery in ancient Rome