Commentary on Slaves and Their Offices among the Ancients

Document notes

Original title: De servis, et eorum apud veteres ministeriis, commentarius A late-humanist Latin antiquarian commentary that reconstructs the servile labor force of the ancient Roman household, office by office and rank by rank. Organizing slaves under the heading of ministeria (functions), it defines each servile office—often by etymology—and grounds it in Roman legal citation from the Digest and Codex alongside literary, patristic, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence. It treats the domus as a pusilla respublica, a tiny commonwealth whose every rank could be juristically defined and philologically documented, distinguishing public from private slaves, urban from rustic households, and elaborating a graded internal hierarchy (ordinarii, vicarii, mediastini, quales quales) as well as special penal and civil statuses. In its 1672 Amsterdam issue it was bound together with Titus Popma's De operis servorum liber, a juristic systematization of the labors (operae) owed. 👉 Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here 📜 View the original source file This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.

• Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here
• View the original source file

Document excerpt

TITI POPMÆ PHRYSII DE OPERIS SERVORVM LIBER. Editio novissima, ab innumeris mendis expurgata, & diversitate characterum exornata. OPTIMI CONSULTORES MORTVI. AMSTELODAMI Apud ANDREAM FRISIYM, M. DC. LXXII.