[Iustiniani Institutiones]

laws are imitated. And although it is elegant, the civil law is distributed into two types: for its origin seems to have flowed from the institutes of two cities, namely Athens and Lacedaemon. For in these cities it was customary that the Lacedaemonians would commit to memory those things which were observed as laws, whereas the Athenians guarded those things which were written down in laws. But natural laws, which are observed among all peoples, are established by a certain divine providence and remain firm and immutable. Those things, however, which every city establishes for itself

are often accustomed to be changed, either by the tacit consent of the people or by some other law passed later. That law which we use pertains either to persons or to things or to actions. Let us see regarding persons. For it is of little value to know the law if the persons for whose sake it was established are ignored.

On the law of persons

The fundamental division, therefore, of the law of persons is this: that all humans are either free or slaves.

And liberty, indeed, from which even those called free are named, is the natural faculty of doing that which one likes, unless one is prohibited by force or by law. Slavery, however, is...