there would he no one to whom the taniiliac nnptor could gix e the bronze. She would he in the mauiis of her husband and all her propert\' would belong to him, so she could not he the recipient of the bronze, hhe inno\ati\e Romans were unlikely to ha\e wasted time on such an unimportant technicality. Cdosely allied to mancipation probably in fact a version of it and certainh' an act per aes ct lihram, was ;/c.v7/;w, by which a free man was bound to a creditor and was subject to his control until an amount of bronze that had been paid out was repaid.' ' Sexani was regulated by the l"j:elve I'ahles 6.i), and probably in this conte.xt also belongs the pnnision ('bah. 4.2b): Si paterfiliamtervenumeiuit, filiiisapatreliher esto ("If a father sells his son three times, let the son be free fromthe father").-" If a son was mancipated-that is, given in jiexum-xhvQc times by his father to work off a debt (or until a loan was repaid), the son would become free from paternal power. This clause came to be used pragmatically to achieve two very different ends. First was to free a son frompaternal power {emaneipatio) while his father was still ali\ e and thus make the son a pater in his turn. This had numerous adx antages for the son, abo\e all in that onl\’ a person sai iaris nor subject to another's power, could own property. (I'.i.Oi: Moreover, eliildren cease ro he in parerna! power hv emamipatio. hur a son passes out from paternal power h\ three mancipation.s, other descendants whether male or female h\' one mancipation, f'or the Tzeelve I'tihles speak of three mancipations in the case of the son alone, in these words: "If a father sells his son three times, let the son he free fromthe father." 'I'his is the procedure: the father mancipates the son to someone; this last manumits the son vinäicnr, on that account the son re\ erts into the potcsTus of the father. I le mancipates hima second time either ro the same or another person 19 Nexumitsetf may, but need not, be an opportunistic use of mancipatio and as such witl not be dealt with here, but see Watson, XII Tables, pp. iiiff. 20 For the argument, see Watson, XII Tables, pp. ii8f. The provision involved mancipatio (or no opportunistic use of the provision could have been made for mancipatio), but no real sales (or the son would not have returned to the potestas of the father). 72
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