Testamentary Manumission for Slaves of Roman Imperial Soldiers

Abstract

This article assembles documentary and legal evidence highlighting testamentary manumission as an important but previously undervalued path to freedom for slaves attached to Roman imperial soldiers of the principate (27 BCE–284 CE). Special imperial concessions permitted soldiers to easily make valid wills and manumit slaves in them (Dig. 29.1). Several particularly informative inscriptions and papyri, moreover, show us how this legal device was used in practice and allow us to surmise that it underlies many of the other, less expansive inscriptions collected for this study.