Manumissions in accordance with Ius Civile and Their consequences in terms of Civil Law

As the slave labor was needed in Rome, slavery always existed as an establishment. In addition, it was possible for a slave to become free at a certain period of his life. When a master granted freedom to his slave due to various reasons, it would bear critical legal consequences. If such slave had been liberated based on one of the conditions required as per ius civile, he would have acquired citizenship and become a part of Roman civitas. In other words, leading his life as a freed man (libertinus), the former slave’s legal status would change. Spending his life as a “person”, he would be entitled to the capacity to have rights. Therefore, the emancipation processes and results were deemed very significant in the Roman society and the public authorities were involved in the procedure. On the other hand, the fact that a freed person was once a slave had a negative effect on the following periods of his life. Particularly during the first periods in the Roman society, the right of patronage (iura patronatus) was likely to affect the freedom acquired by the freedman negatively. Under Roman law, slaves were legally regarded in the status of property and could be the subject of one right only. The freeing of slaves was only possible by a juridical procedure called “manumissio” (emancipation). The Master’s reasons of having this juridical procedure put into practice to free her or his slaves varied in different periods. Manumissio, is the act of changing the legal status of the slave, which was held in accordance with the forms and practices stated in ius civile at master’s will to grant her or his slaves the freedom. Were the slave registered as the citizen thanks to this practice, the emancipated old slave would become “competent for the rights”, in other words, the person who has the capacity to have rights. These formal practices were the oldest emancipation methods –manumissio vindicta (emancipation by a stick), manumissio censu (emancipation by the inventory), manumissio testamento (emancipation by testament). Apart from these emancipation forms, master’s freeing his slave did not bear any legal consequences. Even though the slave was emancipated by her or his master, s/he was accepted as a slave before ius civile. However, in some cases where praetors laid bare the master’s will to emancipate, there appeared the freed slaves living as free when the slave was patronised against the ownership claims. Unanticipated by Ius civile, these new forms did not grant the Roman citizenship to the emancipated slave along with the freedom endowed. These were the