Note 1241 — AGE OF THE FLAVIAN AND ANTONINE EMPERORS (continued 2)

The note of Mommsen, Hermes XIX 412, deals with the case of servi quasi coloni farming parcels of land, recognized in the writings of jurists. It seems that they farmed either at their own risk or for owner’s account [fide dominica]. In the former case they could have a tenant’s agreement like the free coloni. In the latter they were only vilici and therefore part of the instrumentum. Here I think we may see beginnings of the unfree colonate. But Mommsen does not touch the point of manumission. It seems to me that an agreement with a slave must at first have been revocable at the pleasure of the dominus, and its growth into a binding lease was probably connected in many instances with manumission.