Mancipium

There existed in early times a condition of subordination, strongly resembling slavery, known as mancipium. Persons sold by the ancient form mancipation were said to be in mancipio. Slaves were sometimes called ntancipia, but generally the term mancipium was confined to the case of the free persons. Children sold by the pater familias did not become slaves but were held in mancipio. Persons in mancipio were said to be in the place of slaves (loco servorum), but the holder did not enjoy the same dominion over them as a master over his slaves. The mancipiiiin resembled a pledge more than a sale.

A person in maywipio remained free and a citizen, though some of his rights, as potestas, were in abeyance. The relation of the holder and the person in mancipio was rather a personal relation than one of ownership as in the case of slavery. A person in mancipio might be released by vindicta (fictitious suit), by enrollment on the census (even without the consent of the holder), or by will.

The institution of mancipium was practically obsolete as early as the time of Gaius. It was then either 'a purely fictitious legal status employed in effecting adoption or emancipation, when, merely for form's sake, a person was momentarily reduced to this condition, or it was employed as a remedy for a tort committed by a man's wife or child, the man being permitted either to make reparation himself for the wrong, or to surrender the wife or child by mancipation to the injured party (noxal surrender). This right in the case of the child was abolished by Justinian, and in the case of the wife became obsolete with the passing of marriage with inanus.

.

Effects of Marriage with Manus

By the strict marriage the wife passed into the marital power of her husband {in manum viri). The manus or marital power may be regarded as a particular form of the patria potestas. An uxor in manu was a member of her husband's household. Although called a materfamilias, this term did not have a meaning corresponding to the term paterfamilias. The wife was not the head of the family. She stood legally in the position of a daughter {in loco filiafamilias) of her husband. If she had children she was regarded as a sister of her own children. The relation of husband and wife, both as regards the wife's person and her property, was governed by the same rules of law as governed the relation of father and child. The law of husband and wife may, therefore, be considered as merely a particular branch of the law of parent and child. The husband had, in general, the same power over the person of his wife in manu as the father had over his child. Anciently, it may be suppo...
Read more

Slavery by Birth

The children of a female slave became the slaves of her master. The status of the father as free or slave was immaterial. The general rule governing the determination of the status of a child, whether as free or slave, or as citizen or alien, was as follows : Children born in lawful wedlock had the status of the father at the moment of conception, children born out of wedlock had the status of the mother at the moment of birth. Hence if the father of a child of a lawful marriage was free at the moment of conception, the child was free although the father should subsequently lose his freedom. As to children born out of wedlock, the general rule, as above stated, was that it was the status of the mother at the moment of birth that determined the status of the child. If the mother was free at the moment of conception but a slave at the moment of birth, the child was a slave, and conversely. This was the earlier law, but the rule was modified in the interest of liber...
Read more

Mandate (Mandatum)

Mandate (mandatum) was a contract by which one person mandatarius agreed to do something gratuitously at the request of another mandator , who, on his part, agreed to save him harmless from all loss in so doing. The mandator was said to give the mandatory a mandate, or commission to do the act in question. The term mandatum is sometimes translated "agency", but this translation is misleading. The mandatory is not properly described as an agent. Mandate was the only gratuitous consensual contract; the others, sale, hiring, and partnership, all being founded upon a consideration. Like the others, it was a bona fidei negotium , and bound the parties to do all that was required by good faith. It was of the essence of the contract of mandate that the mandatory should act gratuitously. But while this was true in a strict legal sense, it was allowed to agree upon a sum to be paid as a honorium , or salary, which might be recovered only by a special action and not b...
Read more