or sojourners, ten thousand. The other Grecian states abounded in slaves.

Gibbon-Fall

Among the Romans slavery abounded. and Decline, Chapter I-estimates the population of Rome, in the days of Claudius, at one hundred and twenty millions. One half of these, according to Gibbon, or two-thirds, according to Robertson, were slaves. They were found in every province of the empire, Judea excepted. At the coming of Christ, and when the New Testament was written, the sway of Rome extended over the civilized world; and with it its laws, and those on slavery as well as other laws.

2. On this account we will, so far as our limits will allow, present the Roman code on slavery; as this, more than any other source of information, will give us an ́accurate view of the subject, especially as it is connected with the Church. The Justinian law consists of four principal parts-the Institutes, the Digest or Pandects, the Code, and the Novella. The Institutes are an abridged digest of the whole. To the Justinian law is also added the Imperial Constitutions, and other additions of subsequent times.

The Emperor Justinian, in the year of Christ 528, ordered the compilation, which was performed and published the year following, by Tribonian, and other eminent lawyers. As the Institutes are a pretty full outline of Roman law, we make our extracts from them, and refer to the Pandects, Codex, and other parts of the civil law, when necessary. We give all we can find in the Institutes on slavery, so that our selections are full, if not complete; for it would require an unnecessary minuteness to enter into all the nice legal details of the Pandects, Code, Novellæ, etc.

It is, however, proper to state, that the Institutes give quite too favorable a view of the legal ameliorations of

the slave system, as it existed in the days of Christ and his apostles. The reason is, that the Institutes construe the Christian elements diffused into the old law, as they were introduced by Constantine, Justinian, and other Christian Emperors. For instance, the law empowering the ministers of religion to emancipate, by vindicta, at the churches, is a Christian element, and did not exist in the days of Christ. This is a mere specimen, as will be seen in our chapter on the effect of Christianity on Roman civil law.

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1. LEGAL DEFINITIONS.

"Justice is the constant and perpetual disposition to render every man his due." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 1.) Jurisprudence is the knowledge of things divine and human; the science of what is just and unjust." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 1, Sec. 1.)

"The precepts of the law are, to live honestly, to hurt no one, to give every one his due." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 1, Sec. 3.)

"The law of nature is a law not only to man, but, likewise, to all other animals, whether produced on the earth, in the air, or in the waters. From hence proceeds that conjunction of male and female, which we denominate matrimony; hence the procreation and education of children." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 2.)

"Civil law is distinguished from the law of nations, because every community governed by laws uses partly its own, and partly the laws which are common to all mankind. The law which a people enacts for its own government, is called the civil law of that people. But that law which natural reason appoints for mankind, is called the law of nations, because all nations make use of it." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 2, Sec. 1.)

"The law of nations is common to all mankind, and

all nations have enacted some laws, as occasion and necessity required; for wars arose, and the consequences were captivity and slavery; both of which are contrary to the law of nature; for by that law all men are born free." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 2, Sec. 2.)

"The laws of nature, observed by all nations, inasmuch as they are the appointment of a certain divine providence, remain fixed and immutable. But the laws which every city has enacted for itself, suffer frequent changes, either by tacit consent of the people, or by some subsequent law." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 2, Sec. 11.)

2. OF THE RIGHT OF PERSONS.

"The first general division of persons, in respect to their rights, is into freemen and slaves." (Institutes, Lib. 1, Tit. 3. See Digest, Lib. I, Tit. 5.)

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Freedom, or liberty, from which we are denominated free, is the natural power of acting as we please, unless prevented by force or by the law." (Institutes, I, 3, 1.) Slavery is when one man is subject to the dominion of another, according to the law of nations, though contrary to natural rights." (Institutes, I, 3, 2.)

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"Slaves are denominated servi, from the practice of our generals to sell their captives, and thus preserve― and not slay them. Slaves are also called mancipia, in that they are taken from the enemy, by hand." (Manucapti.) (Institutes, I, 3, 3.)

servare

"Slaves are born such, or become so. They are born such, or of bondwomen. They become so either by the law of nations, that is, by captivity, or by the civil law, as when a free person, above the age of twenty, suffers himself to be sold, for the sake of sharing the price given for him." (Institutes, I, 3, 4.)

“There is no difference in the condition of slaves; but among free persons there are many; thus some are

ingenui, or freemen, others, libertini, or freed-men." (Institutes, I, 3, 5.)

3. OF INGENUI, OR FREEMEN.

"A freeman is one who is born free, by being born in matrimony, of parents who are both free, or both freed; or of parents, one free, the other freed. But one born of a free mother, although 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." (Institutes, I, 4. Cod., Lib. VII, Tit. 14. De ingenuis manumissis.)

4. OF LIBERTINI, OR FREED-MEN-MANUMISSION.

"Freed-men are those who have been manumitted from just slavery. Manumission-manu-datio- implies the giving of liberty; for whosoever is in servitude, is subject to the hand and power of another; but whosoever 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; nor was manumission heard of while slavery was unknown. But when slavery, 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, namely, into liberi, or freemen, servi, or slaves, and libertini, or freedmen, who have ceased to be slaves." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 5.)

5. IN WHAT MODES AND TIMES THEY ARE MANUMITTED.

"Manumission is effected by various ways; either in the face of the Church, according to the imperial consti

tutions, 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 divers other methods, some of which were introduced by former laws, and others by our own." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit.

5, Sec. 1.)

"Slaves may be manumitted by their masters at any time, even on the way, as while the prætor, the governor of a province, or the proconsul is going to the bath or the theater." (Institutes, I, 5, 2.)

On manumission, see C., Lib. VII, Tit. 15. Communia de manumissionibus.

6. THE DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN FREED-MEN ANNULLED.

"Freed-men 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 Narbonia; and sometimes only the 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 ancient usage; for, anciently, liberty was simple and undivided; that is, it was conferred upon the slave as his manumittor possessed it; admitting this single difference, that the person manumitted became only a freed-man, 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 ancient law. We have, also, at his suggestion, altered the condition of the Latins, and corrected the laws which related