[27]
For the opponent will say that the
person in question is actually serving as a slave or is
legally in a state of servitude. We must therefore
look for properties and differences, to which in
passing I devoted a brief discussion in my fifth book.1
A slave when manumitted becomes a freedman: a
man who is assigned for debt becomes a free man on
the restoration of his liberty. A slave cannot acquire
his freedom without the consent of his master: a
man assigned for debt can acquire it by paying his
debt without the consent of his master being
necessary. A slave is outside the law; a man
assigned for debt is under the law. Turning to
properties, we may note the following which are
possessed by none save the free, the three names
(praenomen, nomen and cognomen) and membership
of a tribe, all of which are possessed by the man
assigned for debt.
1 V. x. 60.
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