On the Roman Coloni. 137 the old division of all the free inhabitants of the empire into cives^ Latini^ and peregrinv^ there can be no question that they might belong according to circumstances to any one of these three classes. But as the existence of Latini and pere- grini in later times seems to have been merely a rare excep- tion, the chief part of the coloni would no doubt be in pos- session of the Roman franchise ^^^ In this case they had a legal conmihium^ not merely with each other, but even with free citizens. It is true that Justinian forbad the marriage of a free woman with a colonus belonging to another person, and declared it to be null ^ : not however assuredly from the want of the connubium^ in which case her marriage with her own colonus^ and that of a free man with a colona^ would in like manner have been invalid : his aim was merely by this decree, emanating solely from his own authority, to secure the land effectually against the loss of such a colonus and his posterity. The names given to these peasants in a state of hereditary dependence were partly derived from the here- ditary nature of their service, — originarii^ — partly from the polltax they paid — adscriptitii^ tributarily censiti — partly from their relation to the soil which they cultivated and inhabited. From this source comes the general name used throughout this dissertation, coloni : so does the general name rustici^ which also occurs as a specific term for this particular class ^': and lastly the name inquilini^ the mean- ing of which however has been very much disputed. In most of the passages where it occurs this name is used so vaguely, de col. Thrac. (xi. 51) it is expressly stated that the coloni in Thrace were tax-free, but at the same time that their landlord might lay claim to them cum omni peculiar ^^^ See the Dissertation on the Jus Latii, above Vol. i, pp. 152 — 159. From this example we may perceive most distinctly how inadequate the legal notions and tech- nical terms which arose in the classical period were to give a correct idea of the actual state of the empire in later times : so that for instance Justinian's attempt to adapt the Institutes of Gains to the state of the law in his own age, by little else than abridging them and omitting parts, could not but turn out very unsatisfactorily at best. For the coloni in later times formed one of the most important orders in the state ; , yet no mention is made of them in Justinian's Institutes : they occupied a middle station between the free men and the slaves ; yet according to the old classification retained in the Institutes we should be forced to place them all among the free men, and the greater part even in the first rank of the free men, the cives, 1 Nov. 22. C. 17. 2 Gregory the Great (Ep. i. 44) mostly calls them rustici eccleslae or rnstici nostriy occasionally however coloni also. Vol. II. No. 4. S
