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Among the Romans, the libertini, or freedmen, were formerly distinguished by a threefold division.** Just. Inst. lib. 1. tit. 5. They sometimes obtained what was called the greater liberty, thereby becoming Roman citizens. To this privilege, those who were enfranchised by testament, by the census, or by the vindicta, appear to have been alone admitted: sometimes they obtained the lesser liberty only, and became Latins; whose condition is thus described by Justinian. “They never enjoyed the right of succession [to estates].—For although they led the lives of free men, yet with their last breath they lost both their lives and liberties; for their possessions, like the goods of slaves, were detained by the manumittor.”†† Harris’s Inst. lib. 3. tit. 8. Sometimes they obtained only the inferior liber-
stated, and the opinion thereon given, the court shall see manifest reason to deny their interference, they shall order the clerk to issue process against the owner, and the complainant shall remain in the custody of the sheriff until the owner shall give bond and security to have him forthcoming to answer the judgment of the court. And by the general law in case of pauper’s suits, the complainants shall have writs of subpœna gratis; and by the practice of the courts, he is permitted to attend the taking the depositions of witnesses, and go and come freely to and from court, for the prosecution of his suit.
