Regularum libri
Ex libro I
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. The office of the law is to command, to forbid, and to punish.
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. Thus all law has been either made by consent, or established by necessity, or confirmed by custom.
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. Marriage is the union of a man and a woman, forming an association during their entire lives, and involving the common enjoyment of divine and human privileges.
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. Where a man lives with a free woman, it is not considered concubinage but genuine matrimony, if she does not acquire gain by means of her body.
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. We hold that a dowry can be changed while the matrimonial condition exists, only where it will be an advantage to the woman, if the money is changed into property, or property is changed into money. This rule is generally adopted.
Modestinus, Rides, Book I. A freedwoman, who has married her patron, cannot separate from him without his consent, unless she has been manumitted under the terms of a trust, for then she can do so even though she is his freedwoman.
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. Where anyone makes a bequest for the manumission of slaves, who himself has not the power to manumit them, neither the legacy nor the grant of freedom will be valid.
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. Where a man desired one of his slaves to be manumitted, and it does not appear which one the testator intended to be liberated, none of them will be entitled to freedom under the terms of the trust.
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. A freedman cannot be compelled to render services which he did not promise, where none were imposed, even if he may for some time voluntarily perform them.
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. If a son under twenty years of age manumits his slave with the consent of his father, he makes him the freedman of the latter; and proof of the manumission is unnecessary, on account of the consent of the father.
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. Freedom granted by a person who is afterwards himself legally decided to be a slave is of no effect.
Modestinus, Rules, Book I. He is guilty of fornication who keeps a free woman for the purpose of cohabiting with her, but not with the intention of marrying her, excepting, of course, a concubine. 1Adultery is committed with a married woman; fornication with a widow, a virgin, or a boy.