Roman Law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Ju ...

, ''lex Iunia Norbana'' of 19 AD classified all

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

into two classes according to their mode of enfranchisement: enfranchised citizens, (freedmen who enjoyed Roman citizenship) and enfranchised Latini (freedmen who had only

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 ...

). Freedmen would be granted only Latin rights if the

manumission 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 t ...

of the slave failed to meet any of the conditions set out by 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 ...

of 4 AD for it to confer Roman citizenship. This provided that for the freedman to acquire Roman citizenship a slave had to be manumitted at the age of 30 or older, the owner had to have quiritary ownership and the ceremony had to be public. For slaves under the age of thirty, the manumission had to be approved by a special council. The manumission of slaves who had been enslaved because of crimes would raise them only to the position of ''

dediticii In the Roman Empire, 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'' (that is, those holding Latin rights) ...

'' (war captives). Thus, the ''lex Iunia Norbana'' made the slaves who were not eligible for Roman citizens as per the ''lex Aelia Sextia'' enfranchised Latins. The law retained the dediticii. A clause of the law "took away from these Latini Juniani, as they were called, the capacity of making a testament, taking under a testament, and being appointed tutores by a testament." The Institutes, which were part of the

Corpus Juris Civilis The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor. It is also sometimes referred ...

(Body of Civil Law) commissioned by

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renova ...

in the sixth century, recorded that in previous times there were three form of freedmen: those who became Roman citizens, those who acquired inferior freedom as Latins as per the ''lex Junia Norbana'' and those who obtained still less freedom as ''dediticii'' as per the ''lex Aelia Sentia''. This last status had decayed and the Latini had become rare by then. The Institutes also noted that two edicts corrected this situation. One abolished the ''dediticii'' and the other “rendered all freedmen Roman citizens without making any distinction with reference to age, the mode of manumission, or the authority of the manumitting party, as was formerly the practice.”The Enactments of Justinian, The Institutes, Bok 1, Title 5, Concerning freedmen, 3

References

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Relevant articles

Lex Fufia Caninia In ancient Rome, the ''lex Fufia Caninia'' (also ''Furia ~'' or ''Fusia ~'', 2 BC) was one of the laws that national assemblies had to pass, after they were requested to do so by Augustus. This law, along with the '' lex Aelia Sentia'', ...

Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Ju ...

* List of Roman laws * Status in Roman legal system Roman law Slavery in ancient Rome