wer to inquiries from presidents of provinces concerning slaves who
take refuge at churches or statues of the Emperor, commanded that on
proof of intolerable cruelty a master should be compelled to sell his
slaves on fair terms, so as to receive their value. And both of these
are reasonable enactments, for the public interest requires that no one
should make an evil use of his own property. The terms of the rescript
of Antoninus to Aelius Marcianus are as follow:--'The powers of masters
over their slaves ought to continue undiminished, nor ought any man to
be deprived of his lawful rights; but it is the master's own interest
that relief justly sought against cruelty, insufficient sustenance, or
intolerable wrong, should not be denied. I enjoin you then to look
into the complaints of the slaves of Iulius Sabinus, who have fled for
protection to the statue of the Emperor, and if you find them treated
with undue harshness or other ignominious wrong, order them to be sold,
so that they may not again fall under the power of their master; and the
latter will find that if he attempts to evade this my enactment, I shall
visit his offence with severe punishment.'

TITLE IX. OF PATERNAL POWER

Our children whom we have begotten in lawful wedlock are in our power.

1 Wedlock or matrimony is the union of male and female, involving the
habitual intercourse of daily life.

2 The power which we have over our children is peculiar to Roman
citizens, and is found in no other nation.

3 The offspring then of you and your wife is in your power, and so too
is that of your son and his wife, that is to say, your grandson and
granddaughter, and so on. But the offspring of your daughter is not in
your power, but in that of its own father.

TITLE X. OF MARRIAGE

Roman citizens are joined together in lawful wedlock when they are
united according to law, the man having reached years of puberty, and
the woman being of a marriageable age, whether they be independent or
dependent: provided that, in the latter case, they must have the consent
of the parents in whose power they respectively are, the necessity of
which, and even of its being given before the marriage takes place, is
recognised no less by natural reason than by law. Hence the question has
arisen, can the daughter or son of a lunatic lawfully contract marriage?
and as the doubt still remained with regard to the son, we decided that,
like the daughter, the son of a lunat