If anyone should dare to sell or give away a freeborn person, the judge shall at once cause the offender to be arrested. And in order that the said freeborn person may be restored to his proper rank, the judge shall require the vendor of such person to pay a hundred solidi of gold; and if he should not have sufficient property to pay this sum, he shall receive a hundred lashes in public, and shall be delivered over as a slave to him whom he had the audacity to sell, or give away. If a slave should treat a freeborn person in this manner, after being arrested he shall receive two hundred lashes in public, by order of the judge, and having been scalped he shall be condemned to perpetual servitude. This rule shall apply also to donations and sales of freeborn women.
ANCIENT LAW.
XII. It shall be Illegal for Parents to Sell their Children, or, by any Contract whatsoever, to Place Them in the Power of Others.
It shall not be lawful for parents to sell, give away, or pledge their children. And no one who purchases or receives a child under such circumstances, shall have any legal right to it whatever, but, on the other hand, he shall lose the price, or the amount advanced as a loan, which he paid to the parents of said child.[28]
FLAVIUS CHINTASVINTUS, KING.
XIII. Concerning Sales by Slaves.
The property of another cannot be sold contrary to the will of him who is entitled to legal ownership of the same. Therefore, for the reason that an ancient law declared all sales by slaves invalid, which were made at the expense of their masters, we have determined to promulgate a more equitable decree, in order to bring the laws of the country within the bounds of justice; for it is better to amend the acts of those who have fallen into error, than to err in like manner. Wherefore, if any one, hereafter, should knowingly receive from any slave of either sex, who belongs to another person, a house, or land, or a vineyard, or any personal property, upon any terms whatsoever, the sale, gift, or pledge, made by such a person shall be invalid, and the delivery of the property shall not be required. Where the sale is attended with expense to the purchaser, the property shall be returned intact to the master of the slave, and the purchaser shall lose the price he paid for it; for it is but just that he should sustain loss who attempted to appropriate the property of another for his own advantage. But if the aforesaid slave should sell any animals, or any personal property, or any ornaments of any kind, which belong to himself, or which he had received from his master to be disposed of, such transaction shall be forever valid; and if the master of any servant who has made such a sale should wish to rescind the sale, and should declare that the property which was sold did not belong to the slave, but was his own, the sale shall not be rescinded, unless he who proposes to do so shall establish, either by the testimony of legitimate witnesses, or by his own oath, that the property which he seeks to recover did not belong to the slave, but to himself, and has been disposed of without his permission. This law shall apply only to chattels of trifling value, for the authority of the master is necessary in order to confirm a contract relating to the sale of property of great value and importance.
ANCIENT LAW.
XIV. Where a Slave, who has been Sold, Accuses his Former Master of Crime.
If anyone should sell a slave, and the latter should accuse his former master of crime, he who sold him may recover said slave from the purchaser by returning the price for which he was sold, in order that he may avenge upon him the crime of which he himself was accused. And we decree that the same law shall be observed concerning female slaves. No servant of either sex, whether sold, given, or exchanged, shall be tortured to obtain evidence against his or her former master, nor shall he or she be believed if they should accuse their former master of crime.