Legal Status of a Municipal Freedman

Abstract

his paper centres on the legal status of municipal freedmen in the Imperial period. It is known from chapter 72 of the Lex Irnitana that emancipated servus publicus received double status: that of Latinus and that of municeps. The paradox of municipal freedman being а citizen of his community but not enjoying full rights is reconsidered in the light of а series of legal documents. The double nature of municipal freedmen was connected, firstly, with the procedure of manumission, when the magistrate could not use vindicta, and, secondly, with the nature of the patron, i.e. municipium, which could emancipate its slave only to receive the status of its other citizens. For the municipals а freed servus publicus bесаmе а municipal enjoying, as well as the rest of the citizens, the right of hereditas and bonorum possessio; but for the municipium he was а Latinus Iunianus, his patron having the right to his legacy.