chap, xliv] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 503 were continually diminished by the influence of government and religion ; and the pride of a subject was no longer elated by his absolute dominion over the life and happiness of his bondsman. 102 The law of nature instructs most animals to cherish and Fathers educate their infant progeny. The law of reason inculcates to dren the human species the returns of filial piety. But the exclusive, absolute, and perpetual dominion of the father over his children is peculiar to the Roman jurisprudence, 103 and seems to be coeval with the foundation of the city. 104 The paternal power was in- stituted or confirmed by Romulus himself ; and after the practice of three centuries it was inscribed on the fourth table of the Decemvirs. In the forum, the senate, or the camp, the adult son of a Roman citizen enjoyed the public and private rights of a person ; in his father's house, he was a mere thing, confounded by the laws with the moveables, the cattle, and the slaves, whom the capricious master might alienate or destroy without being responsible to any earthly tribunal. The hand which bestowed the daily sustenance might resume the voluntary gift, and what- ever was acquired by the labour or fortune of the son was im- mediately lost in the property of the father. His stolen goods (his oxen or his children) might be recovered by the same action of theft; 105 and, if either had been guilty of a trespass, it was in his own option to compensate the damage or resign to the under ten years, thirty pieces ; above, fifty ; if tradesmen, seventy (Cod. 1. vi. tit. xliii. leg. 3). These legal prices are generally below those of the market. 102 For the state of slaves and freedmen, see Institutes, 1. i. tit. iii.-viii. ; 1. ii. tit. ix. ; 1. iii. tit. viii. ix. [vii., viii.]. Pandects or Digest, 1. i. tit. v. vi. ; 1. xxxviii. tit. i.-iv., and the whole of the xlth book. Code, 1. vi. tit. iv. v. ; 1. vii. tit. i.-xxiii. Be it henceforwards understood that, with the original text of the Institutes and Pan- dects, the correspondent articles in the i Antiquities and Elements of Heineecius are implicitly quoted ; and with the xxvii. first books of the Pandects, the learned and rational Commentaries of Gerard Noodt (Opera, torn. ii. p. 1-590, the end, Lugd. Bat. 1724). [W. W. Buckland, The Roman Law of Slavery, 1908.] lu3 See the patria potestas in the Institutes (1. i. tit. ix.), the Pandects (1. i. tit. vi. vii.), and the Code (1. viii. tit. xlvii. xlviii. xlix. [ = leg. xlvi., xlvii., xlviii. ed. Kriiger]). Jus potestatis quod in liberos habemuB proprium est civium Romano- rum. Nulli enim alii sunt homines, qui talem in liberos habeant potestatem qualem nos habemus. [Gaius mentions the Galatians as having this power ; i. 55 ; and Ceesar (B. G. 6, 19) states that it existed in Gaul.] 104 Dionysiu6 Hal., 1. ii. p. 94, 95 [c. 26]. Gravina (Opp. p. 286) produoes the words of the xii tables. Papinian (in Collatione Legum Roman, et Mosaicarum, tit. iv. p. 204) styles this patria potestas, lex regia ; Ulpian (ad Sabin. 1. xxvi. in Pandect. 1. i. tit. vi. leg. 8) says, jus potestatis moribus receptum ; and furiosus filium in potestate habebit. How sacred — or rather, how absurd ! 105 Pandect. 1. xlvii. tit. ii. leg. 14, No. 13 ; leg. 38, No. 1. Such was the decision of Ulpian and Paul.
