The Same, Digest, Book LXV. A patron who hires the services of his freedman is not always understood to receive payment for said services; but this should be ascertained from the nature of the services, and The position of the patron and the freedman. 1For, if anyone has a freedman who is a comedian, or the chief actor in a pantomime, and his means are moderate, so that he cannot avail himself of his services unless he leases them, it should be considered that it is the services of the freedman that he requires, rather than the compensation therefor. 2Likewise physicians very frequently manumit their slaves who belong to the same profession, as they cannot make use of their services without hiring them. The same rule can be said to apply to other occupations. 3But where anyone can make use of the services of a freedman, and prefers by hiring them to obtain their value, he should be considered to receive compensation for the services of his freedman. 4Sometimes, however, patrons hire the services of their freedmen at the request of the latter, and when this is done, they should be considered rather as receiving the price of their services than compensation for them.

The Same, Digest, Book LXV. Where two patrons had a freedman in common, and one of them required him to swear that he would not marry, and the other to whom this fault could not be imputed either died during the lifetime of the freedman, or survived him, he alone can acquire the shares of the estate to which both were legally entitled.