Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor), 41.8.10

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[10] For in the first place, in order to evade the requirement that they should leave offspring at home, they would give their sons to any Romans whatsoever in slavery, on the condition that they should be manumitted and thus become citizens of freedman condition;¹ in the second place, those who had no offspring to leave behind, in order to become Roman citizens adopted children.²

Ab urbe condita. Titus Livius (Livy). Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor). Medford, MA. .

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

History of Rome (English) (Foster, Benjamin Oliver; Moore, Frank Gardener; Sage, Evan T.; Schlesinger, Alfred C., translators. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919-1959. (Loeb Classical Library))

Editions (3)

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Pars I-IV, Libri I-XL. Editio Stereotypica. Weissenborn, Wilhelm; Mueller, Moritz, editors. Leipzig: Teubner, 1884-1911.) — 41.8.10 focus

[10] nam et ne stirpem domi relinquerent, liberos suos quibuslibet Romanis in eam condicionem, ut manu mitterentur, mancipio dabant, libertinique cives essent; et quibus stirps deesset, quam relinquerent, ut cives Romani fiebant.

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Livy in Fourteen Volumes. Foster, Benjamin Oliver; Moore, Frank Gardener; Schlesinger, Alfred C., editors. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919-1959 (printing).) — 43.8.10 focus

[10] comitiis habitis omnes quinque et triginta tribus eum condemnarunt.

Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn Perseus (Weissenborn, W.; Müller, H. J., editors. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1873-1883.) — 41.8.10 focus

[10] nam et ne stirpem domi relinquerent, liberos suos quibusquibus Romanis in eam condicionem, ut ¹ manumitterentur, mancipio dabant, libertinique cives essent; et quibus stirpes deesset, quam relinquerent, ut cives Romani fiebant.

Translations (2)

History of Rome Perseus (Spillan, D.; Edmonds, Cyrus; McDevitte, William A., translators. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849-1868. (Bohn's Classical Library)) — 41.8.10 focus

[10] For, at first, to evade the leaving offspring at home, they made over their children as slaves to some Roman, under an agreement that they should be again set free, and thus become citizens by emancipation; and then those men, who had now no children to leave, became Roman citizens.

History of Rome Perseus (Volumes 1-2. Roberts, Canon, Rev, translator. London, New York: J. M. Dent and Sons; E. P. Dutton and Co., 1912.) — 41.8.10 focus

[10] For in order to avoid any male descendants being left at home, they gave their children as slaves to some Roman or other, on condition that they should be manumitted, and as freedmen become citizens, whilst on the other hand those who had no male descendants became Roman citizens. Subsequently, even this legal presence was brushed aside.

Notes on the current edition

Ab Urbe Condita With An English Translation, books 1-10, 21-45, with periochae 11-20

1. The procedure is difficult to follow, especially in the light of the preceding sentence. This much is clear, that the father who aspired to become a Roman citizen satisfied the requirement mentioned above by leaving a son behind him; next he transferred that son collusively to some Roman by the legal process of mancipium; after the father had acquired the Roman citizenship, presumably, the Roman who had purchased the son set him free, whereby the son also became a civis, though a libertinus, by reason of his temporary slavery. This method injured the socii, by depriving them of a family.

2. This passage has been emended in many ways: I have preferred the text of Voigt, mainly on account of its brevity, since the general purport of all is the same (for other suggestions see the apparatus of Giarratano). One may assume that the phrase stirpem ex sese was found legally ambiguous, and was stretched to include adoptive children. This method injured the Romans, since the law had been evaded, even if not actually violated.

Titus Livius (Livy) Ab urbe condita 41.8.10

Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor)

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