[93]
Yet, though he had
entered in his accounts six hundred thousand sesterces
as having been received, he has never paid over fifty thousand. Of the slaves, since
he has been prosecuted in this manner, some have been restored, some are detained
even now. All the gains which they had made, and all their substitutes 1 are detained.
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1 “As slaves often acted as factors or agents for their masters in matters of business, and, as such, were often entrusted with property to a large amount, there arose a practice of allowing the slave to consider part of the gains as his own; this was his peculium .... According to strict law the peculium was the property of the master, but according to usage it was the property of the slave.... Sometimes a slave would have another slave under him, who had a peculium with respect to the first slave, just as the first slave had a peculium with respect to his master. On this practice was founded the distinction between Servi Ordinarii and Vicarii.”—Smith, Dict. Ant. pp. 869, 870. v. Servus.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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