ersely if she be free at the time of conception, and then becomes a
slave before the birth of the child, the latter is held to be free born,
on the ground that an unborn child ought not to be prejudiced by the
mother's misfortune. Hence arose the question of whether the child of a
woman is born free, or a slave, who, while pregnant, is manumitted, and
then becomes a slave again before delivery. Marcellus thinks he is born
free, for it is enough if the mother of an unborn infant is free at any
moment between conception and delivery: and this view is right.

1 The status of a man born free is not prejudiced by his being placed
in the position of a slave and then being manumitted: for it has been
decided that manumission cannot stand in the way of rights acquired by
birth.

TITLE V. OF FREEDMEN

Those are freedmen, or made free, who have been manumitted from legal
slavery. Manumission is the giving of freedom; for while a man is in
slavery he is subject to the power once known as 'manus'; and from that
power he is set free by manumission. All this originated in the law
of nations; for by natural law all men were born free--slavery, and by
consequence manumission, being unknown. But afterwards slavery came in
by the law of nations; and was followed by the boon of manumission; so
that though we are all known by the common name of 'man,' three classes
of men came into existence with the law of nations, namely men free
born, slaves, and thirdly freedmen who had ceased to be slaves.

1 Manumission may take place in various ways; either in the holy church,
according to the sacred constitutions, or by default in a fictitious
vindication, or before friends, or by letter, or by testament or any
other expression of a man's last will: and indeed there are many other
modes in which freedom may be acquired, introduced by the constitutions
of earlier emperors as well as by our own.

2 It is usual for slaves to be manumitted by their masters at any time,
even when the magistrate is merely passing by, as for instance while the
praetor or proconsul or governor of a province is going to the baths or
the theatre.

3 Of freedmen there were formerly three grades; for those who were
manumitted sometimes obtained a higher freedom fully recognised by the
laws, and became Roman citizens; sometimes a lower form, becoming by
the lex Iunia Norbana Latins; and sometimes finally a liberty still more
circumscribed, being placed by the lex Ae