Let us now examine the modes in which persons dependent on a superior
become independent. How slaves are freed from the power of their
masters can be gathered from what has already been said respecting their
manumission. Children under paternal power become independent at the
parent's death, subject, however, to the following distinction.
The death of a father always releases his sons and daughters from
dependence; the death of a grandfather releases his grandchildren from
dependence only provided that it does not subject them to the power of
their father. Thus, if at the death of the grandfather the father is
alive and in his power, the grandchildren, after the grandfather's
death, are in the power of the father; but if at the time of the
grandfather's death the father is dead, or not subject to the
grandfather, the grandchildren will not fall under his power, but become
independent.
1 As deportation to an island for some penal offence entails loss of
citizenship, such removal of a man from the list of Roman citizens has,
like his death, the effect of liberating his children from his power;
and conversely, the deportation of a person subject to paternal power
terminates the power of the parent. In either case, however, if the
condemned person is pardoned by the grace of the Emperor, he recovers
all his former rights.
2 Relegation to an island does not extinguish paternal power, whether it
is the parent or the child who is relegated.
3 Again, a father's power is extinguished by his becoming a 'slave of
punishment,' for instance, by being condemned to the mines or exposed to
wild beasts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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