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early date may be applied , with very slight alteration , to the same class of persons under the Anglo-Saxons . Tacitus concludes some remarks upon the passion of the ancient Germans for gambling , by informing us that , when everything they had was lost , they often staked their own liberty on the last throw of the dice , and , if losers ,
patiently allowed themselves to be bound and sold into slavery . Slaves of this kind , indeed , were frequently sold into another tribe to conceal the disgrace of the transaction . The historian then goes on to say , " Their other slaves they employ , not in household affairs as we do , but each one governs his own house and household . His lord enjoins him to pav a certain p ortion of corn , or cattle , or annarel , as is
enjoined [ among the Romans ] to the colonus , and just so much the slave performs . The other duties of the house are the province of the wife and children . It is a rare thing to beat a slave , or to subject him to chains or hard labour . They are accustomed to kill them , not by discipline or severity , but by passion and in anger , as they
would an enemy , except that in this case they do it with impunity . The freed men rank not much higher than the slaves ; they seldom have any weight in the house , never in the state , except only in those tribes which are governed by kings , for there they rise both above freeborn and above nobles . In the other tribes , the inequality of the freed man enhances the estimation of liberty . "
Amongst the Romans , the servi or slaves , in the strongest sense of the word , were altogether a distinct class from the serfs of the soil , or coloni ; and it is singular that Tacitus should have fallen into the error of comparing the German serfs with the former instead of the latter . The explanation of this error may be looked for , in a circumstance , of considerable importance to the history of the class of men of which we are speaking . It is probable that in the time of
Tacitus , the German servile class was in course of formation , that race gradually extending towards the west , itself and its dominion ; and as the number was daily increased by foreign captives , or voluntary slaves , similar to those before mentioned , the historian compared them naturally , rather with the slaves whose ranks were constantly augmenting by the importation of new captives , and who might be set at liberty by manumission , than with the coloni , who received no such increase , and whose condition could not be changed .
The Roman codes of Theodosius and Justinian afford a tolerably correct view of the condition of the coloni under the Christian emperors ; and in enumerating their more prominent characterises , we
shall perceive points of comparison useful for reference hereafter . The coloni were irremovably attached to the soil { servi terrce glebm inharentes ) ; they could on no pretext quit the domain to which they belonged , and if they ran away , or as it was expressed , " stole
themselves from their masters , " the proprietor could claim and seize them wherever they had settled , or whatever profession they had embraced . The greatest difficulty was encountered upon the entrance of a colonus into the ranks of the clergy ; a first enactment directed that no colonus should be ordained except in the church of the place where
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
early date may be applied , with very slight alteration , to the same class of persons under the Anglo-Saxons . Tacitus concludes some remarks upon the passion of the ancient Germans for gambling , by informing us that , when everything they had was lost , they often staked their own liberty on the last throw of the dice , and , if losers ,
patiently allowed themselves to be bound and sold into slavery . Slaves of this kind , indeed , were frequently sold into another tribe to conceal the disgrace of the transaction . The historian then goes on to say , " Their other slaves they employ , not in household affairs as we do , but each one governs his own house and household . His lord enjoins him to pav a certain p ortion of corn , or cattle , or annarel , as is
enjoined [ among the Romans ] to the colonus , and just so much the slave performs . The other duties of the house are the province of the wife and children . It is a rare thing to beat a slave , or to subject him to chains or hard labour . They are accustomed to kill them , not by discipline or severity , but by passion and in anger , as they
would an enemy , except that in this case they do it with impunity . The freed men rank not much higher than the slaves ; they seldom have any weight in the house , never in the state , except only in those tribes which are governed by kings , for there they rise both above freeborn and above nobles . In the other tribes , the inequality of the freed man enhances the estimation of liberty . "
Amongst the Romans , the servi or slaves , in the strongest sense of the word , were altogether a distinct class from the serfs of the soil , or coloni ; and it is singular that Tacitus should have fallen into the error of comparing the German serfs with the former instead of the latter . The explanation of this error may be looked for , in a circumstance , of considerable importance to the history of the class of men of which we are speaking . It is probable that in the time of
Tacitus , the German servile class was in course of formation , that race gradually extending towards the west , itself and its dominion ; and as the number was daily increased by foreign captives , or voluntary slaves , similar to those before mentioned , the historian compared them naturally , rather with the slaves whose ranks were constantly augmenting by the importation of new captives , and who might be set at liberty by manumission , than with the coloni , who received no such increase , and whose condition could not be changed .
The Roman codes of Theodosius and Justinian afford a tolerably correct view of the condition of the coloni under the Christian emperors ; and in enumerating their more prominent characterises , we
shall perceive points of comparison useful for reference hereafter . The coloni were irremovably attached to the soil { servi terrce glebm inharentes ) ; they could on no pretext quit the domain to which they belonged , and if they ran away , or as it was expressed , " stole
themselves from their masters , " the proprietor could claim and seize them wherever they had settled , or whatever profession they had embraced . The greatest difficulty was encountered upon the entrance of a colonus into the ranks of the clergy ; a first enactment directed that no colonus should be ordained except in the church of the place where