The law which does not punish a freeman who is so base and abject in mind as to dishonor the dignity of freedom, and share in the execrable profit of the price obtained by selling himself into slavery, is certainly one of those which are the least worthy of approval and execution. Nor do We think that the one which has been enacted concerning such persons, and which permits an act due to insanity, and so far from imposing any penalty upon those who take part in it, does not even condemn such an infamous transaction, accomplishes the purpose of legislation, and is unworthy of the reverence which should be accorded to the laws. For if laws bear the same relation to citizens as a father does to his children, that is to say, authorizes only what is beneficial and salutary for them, how can an enactment properly be considered legal which permits persons through madness to commit such an improper and injurious act? Hence We do not wish such a law to be included among those of the Empire, and We hereby decree that if anyone should be so demented as to sell himself, thereby sacrificing his own freedom, such a contract shall not be valid; both parties to it shall be scourged with rods, and the status of the one who sold himself shall remain the same as before.