This gift of citizenship was, in the Republic, conferred exclusively by a decree of the people (_jussu populi_). Such decrees might be either of a standing or a particular character; they might confer the gift immediately on the recipients or through intermediary delegates. Standing rules are mainly such as governed the condition of the dependencies of Rome. We shall find that the rights of Latin colonies provided facilities for the attainment of citizenship; the criminal laws sometimes gave a foreigner the gift of _civitas_ as a reward for successful prosecution;[514] and, after the fall of the Republic, the enlistment of legionaries from the provinces was one of the most fertile sources from which the citizen body was recruited. Particular conferments, if not made directly by the people, might be effected through the Senate acting as its delegate,[515] or through commissioners charged with the founding of colonies. These were generally the specially-appointed _IIIviri coloniae deducendae_; and in all such cases of delegation the power was conferred by a _lex_.[516] In the last century of the Republic we find the custom growing up of permitting by special enactment such powers to generals in the field. Marius in the Cimbric war had the gift of citizenship in his hands, and a _lex Cornelia Gellia_ granted a similar power to Pompeius during his Spanish campaigns.[517] This was the stepping stone to the right possessed by the sole commander-in-chief, the Princeps, to confer the citizenship at his pleasure. (ii.) Any perfectly valid form of manumission conferred citizenship on slaves. Every form was undertaken at the initiative of the master, but for it to be perfectly sound (_manumissio justa_)[518] he must observe certain rules of law. The most usual form was the _manumissio vindicta_. It was one of the many fictitious forms of the old capture of property (_vindicatio_), the primitive Roman method of recovery. A man of straw, called the _adsertor in libertatem_, appeared before any magistrate, who could claim the conduct of the _legis actio_[519] declared the slave to be free, and touched his head with a staff (_vindicta_).[520] The master yielded, and this cession of his rights (_in jure cessio_) was followed by the declaration of the magistrate that the slave was free.[521] The second form was the enrolment on the register of citizens by the censor, when the census was in progress, at the request of the master (_manumissio censu_). It was the false declaration of the master that the man was free which gave validity to this form.[522] The third and later form was manumission by testament (_manumissio testamento_), by which the master either commanded the freedom of the slave in his will, or left it as a trust to his heir.[523]