Impp.
Leo et Severus aa. Basilio p(raefecto) p(raetorio) et patricio. Cum
per virum inlustrem Ausonium cunctorum ad nos provincialium querella
pervenit, eo quod ... laeti et ... aliaque corpora publicis obsequiis
deputata quorundam se colonis vel famulis ignorantibus dominis sociassent,
et nunc sub specie publicae corporationis procreatos liberos conantur
iugo servitutis absolvere, idcirco agnoscat sublimis magnificentia tua
divali nos in aeternum lege sanxisse, si qui vel si qua ex corporibus
publicis ubi et ubi vel ex corporatis urbis Romae servis vel colonis
se crediderint copulandos, agnationem eorum ad eos dominos pertinere,
quorum inquilinus vel colonus fuisse constiterit : exceptis his, qui
ante eam legem non taliter latam sese iunxisse noscuntur. Data VII Kal.
Oct. Hermenerico et Basilisco coss. |
Emperors
Leo and Severus Augustuses to Basilius, Praetorian Prefect and Patrician.
A complaint of all
the provincials has come to Us through the Illustrious Ausonius, because
… the laeti … and other guilds assigned to public
services have united themselves to the coloni and household
slaves of certain persons without the knowledge of the masters, and
now under the pretext of membership in a public guild they are attempting
to absolve from the yoke of slavery the children that they have procreated.
Therefore Your Sublime Magnificence shall know that by a divine imperial
law which shall live forever. We have sanctioned that if any man or
any woman from the public guilds anywhere at all, even from the guildsmen
of the City of Rome, should suppose that he should be united with
a slave or colonus, their children belong to those masters
to whom it is proved that the inquilinus or colonus
belonged. Those persons shall be excepted who are known to have so
united themselves previously, when this law had not been issued to
this effect.
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