3.1.81 to 3.1.83

(73) And for the reason that the effect of this Constitution seems to be that men of this kind never die as Roman citizens, even though they may subsequently have acquired the right of Roman citizenship under the Lex Ælia, Sentia or the Decree of the Senate. The Divine Hadrian, induced by the injustice of this law, caused a Decree of the Senate to be enacted providing that freedmen who had obtained the right of Roman citizenship from the Emperor without the knowledge, or against the will, of their patrons, and afterwards availed themselves of the right by which, under the Lex Ælia, Sentia or the Decree of the Senate, they would have obtained Roman citizenship if they had remained Latins, should be considered to occupy the same position as if they had acquired Roman citizenship under the provisions of the Lex Ælia Sentia ,or the Decree of the Senate. (74) Moreover, the estates of those whom the Lex Ælia Sentia places in the class of dediticii ,belong to their patrons, sometimes as if they were freedmen and Roman citizens, and sometimes as if they were Latins. (75) For the estates of those who, had it not been for some offence which they perpetrated after having been manumitted, would have become Roman citizens, are granted by this same law to their patrons, just as the estates of those who have become Roman citizens, for they have not the power to make a will; and this opinion was not unreasonably held by the greater number of authorities, for it seems incredible that the legislator intended to grant the right to make a will to men belonging to the lowest rank of freedmen.