[1236] III 47.
[1237] dona matrum ‘presents from their mothers.’ Eggs, I think. Cf VII 31 and Juv XI 70-1. The conjecture ova matrum (Paley) is good.
[1238] The story of the Usipian deserters who found their way back into Roman hands by way of the slave-market is a curious episode of 83 AD. Tac Agr 28. See the chapter on [Tacitus].
[1239] VII 80.
[1240] X 30, of a charming seaside villa at Formiae. o ianitores vilicique felices, dominis parantur ista, serviunt vobis. In Dig XXXIII 7 § 15² we hear of mulier villae custos perpetua.
[1241] 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.
[1242] I 55 hoc petit, esse sui nec magni ruris arator, sordidaque in parvis otia rebus amat. And often.
[1243] VII 36, XI 34.
[1244] I 85, X 85. Cf Pliny epist VIII 17.
[1245] X 61, XI 48. The title de sepulchro violato, Dig XLVII 12, will illustrate this.