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502 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xliv glory to the persons of their wives and children. But, in the eye of the law, all Roman citizens were equal, and all sub- jects of the empire were citizens of Rome. That inestimable character was degraded to an obsolete and empty name. The voice of a Roman could no longer enact his laws or create the •annual ministers of his power : his constitutional rights might have checked the arbitrary will of a master ; and the bold adven- turer from Germany or Arabia was admitted, with equal favour, to the civil and military command, which the citizen alone had been once entitled to assume over the conquests of his fathers. The first Caesars had scrupulously guarded the distinction of ingenuous and servile birth, which was decided by the condition of the mother; and the candour of the laws was satisfied, if her freedom could be ascertained during a single moment be- tween the conception and the delivery. The slaves, who were liberated by a generous master, immediately entered into the middle class of libertines or freedmen ; but they could never be enfranchised from the duties of obedience and gratitude; whatever were the fruits of their industry, their patron and his family inherited the third part, or even the whole of their fortune, if they died without children and without a testament. Justinian respected the 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 re- serve 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 in- troduced 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. 101 But the hardships of this dependent state 101 If the option of a slave was bequeathed to several legatees, they drew lots, and the losers were entitled to their share of his value : ten pieces of gold for a common servant or maid under ten years ; if above that age, twenty ; if they knew a trade, thirty; notaries or writers, fifty; midwives or physicians, sixty; eunuchs