Slave and the Law
The legal status of a Roman slave was in many ways no different from that of livestock. Both in law and in treatment, slaves were a piece of property. They were denied the majority of the fundamental rights, which the law bestowed upon all Roman citizens. For example, with the exception of the villicus, slaves were not permitted to marry or form families. Moreover, the children of two slaves were, by law, slaves as well. Instead, they were seen as a living and breathing tool with the purpose of performing labor. Through Roman law, the body of a slave belongs to his master. One of the only rights given to slaves was the peculium, or allowance. Although the owner also owned the peculium, slaves had the possibility to purchase this freedom with this sum of money.
After manumission, a slave was given freedom and released from all of his duties as a slave. Freedmen typically were not fully integrated into society. One way in which the law made it difficult for ex-slaves to become full citizens of Rome was through the practices of obseqium and operae. The act of obseqium required freedmen and women to openly grovel in the presence of their former masters. Whether in public or in the privacy of the household, freedmen were required to remove their hate, drop to their knees, etc. in front of their masters. Operae, on the other hand, was the custom whereby an ex-slave was required to return to their slave professions for a certain number of days annually for their masters. The number of days varied depending on the conditions of the manumission.
Because of the immense scope of the slave system, there was a large number of laws regulation the institution. For a comprehensive list of Roman Laws, consult this Classics Page. Listed below are only a few of the many laws which promoted or restricted the Roman slave system.
1. Lex Poetelia (326 BCE) - abolished the acquisition of labor from within Rome's citizens, otherwise known as debt-bondage. This law opened the door for the arrival of chattel slavery.
2. Lex Aelia Sentia (4 AD) - consular law of Augustus that restricted the manumission of slaves by age. No slave under the age of 30 could be manumitted, and no master under the age of 20 could emancipate a slave.
3. Lex Fufia Caninia (2 AD) - limited the number of slaves which a Roman master could manumit over a lifetime.
4. Lex Iunia Sorbana - Austus put a check upon the informal manumission of slaves; slaves who were not formally emancipated were not offered citizenship. Instead, they were offered the second-class, "Latin Status", which gave them basic rights, but did not let them vote, hold office, or conduct commerce.