rights of patrons, but his indulgence removed
the badge of disgrace from the two inferior orders of freedmen: whoever
ceased to be a slave obtained without reserve or delay the station of a
citizen; and at length the dignity of an ingenuous birth, which nature
had refused, was created or supposed by the omnipotence of the Emperor.
Whatever restraints of age, or forms, or numbers had been formerly
introduced to check the abuse of manumissions and the too rapid increase
of vile and indigent Romans, he finally abolished; and the spirit of his
laws promoted the extinction of domestic servitude. Yet the eastern
provinces were filled in the time of Justinian with multitudes of
slaves, either born or purchased for the use of their masters; and the
price, from ten to seventy pieces of gold, was determined by their age,
their strength, and their education. But the hardships of this dependent
state were continually diminished by the influence of government and
religion, and the pride of a subject was no longer elated by his
absolute dominion over the life and happiness of his bondsman.

The law of nature instructs most animals to cherish and educate their
infant progeny. The law of reason inculcates to the human species the
return of filial piety. But the exclusive, absolute, and perpetual
dominion of the father over his children is peculiar to the Roman
jurisprudence and seems to be coeval with the foundation of the city.
The paternal power was instituted or confirmed by Romulus himself; and
after the practice of three centuries it was inscribed on the fourth
table of the decemvirs. In the Forum, the senate, or the camp the adult
son of a Roman citizen enjoyed the public and private rights of a
_person_: in his father's house he was a mere _thing_;[30] confounded by
the laws with the movables, the cattle, and the slaves, whom the
capricious master might alienate or destroy without being responsible to
any earthly tribunal. The hand which bestowed the daily sustenance
might resume the voluntary gift, and whatever was acquired, by the labor
or fortune of the son was immediately lost in the property of the
father. His stolen goods (his oxen or his children) might be recovered
by the same action of theft; and if either had been guilty of a
trespass, it was in his own option to compensate the damage or resign to
the injured party the obnoxious animal.

At the call of indigence or avarice the master of a family could dispose
of his