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• The Rights of War and Peace Book Iii
• Chapter I: Certain General Rules, Shewing What, By the Law of Nature, Is Allowable In War; Where Also the Author Treats of Deceit and Lying.
• Chapter II: How Subjects Goods, By the Law of Nations, Are Obliged For Their Prince’s Debts: and of Reprisals.
• Chapter III: Of a Just Or Solemn War, According to the Right of Nations, and of Its Denunciation.
• Chapter IV: The Right of Killing Enemies In a Solemn War; and of Other Hostilities Committed Against the Person of the Enemy.
• Chapter V: Of Spoil and Rapine In War.
• Chapter VI: Of the Right to the Things Taken In War.
• Chapter VII: Of the Right Over Prisoners.
• Chapter VIII: Of Empire Over the Conquered.
• Chapter IX: Of the Right of Postliminy.
• Chapter X: Advice Concerning Things Done In an Unjust War.
• Chapter XI: Moderation Concerning the Right of Killing Men In a Just War.
• Chapter XII: Concerning Moderation In Regard to the Spoiling the Country of Our Enemies, and Such Other Things.
• Chapter XIII: Moderation About Things Taken In War.
• Chapter XIV: Of Moderation Concerning Captives.
• Chapter XV: Moderation In Obtaining Empire.
• Chapter XVI: Moderation Concerning Those Things Which, By the Law of Nations, Have Not the Benefit of Postliminy.
• Chapter XVII: Of Neuters In War.
• Chapter XVIII: Concerning Things Privately Done In a Publick War.
• Chapter XIX: Concerning Faith Between Enemies.
• Chapter XX: Concerning the Publick Faith Whereby War Is Finished; of Treaties of Peace, Lots, Set Combats, Arbitrations, Surrenders, Hostages, and Pledges.
• Chapter XXI: Of Faith During War, of Truces, of Safe-conduct, and the Redemption of Prisoners.
• Chapter XXII: Concerning the Faith of Inferior Powers In War.
• Chapter XXIII: Of Faith Given By Private Men In War.
• Chapter XXIV: Of Faith Tacitly Given.
• Chapter XXV: The Conclusion, With Admonitions to Preserve Faith and Seek Peace.
• Passages of Scripture, Illustrated, Examined, Or Corrected In This Treatise . †
• Appendix Prolegomena to the First Edition of De Jure Belli Ac Pacis
• Bibliography of Postclassical Works Referred to By Grotius
• Bibliography of Works Referred to In Jean Barbeyrac’s Notes

CHAPTER XIV

Of Moderation concerning Captives.

I.How far, in Conscience, we may make Prisoners of War.I. 1. In what Places the taking of Men Prisoners, and making them Slaves, is yet allowed, if we respect internal Justice, it is to be thus limited; that is, it may be so far lawful, till Satisfaction be made for the Debt, either principal, or accessory; unless it should happen, that the Persons taken be guilty of such Crimes as may justly forfeit their Liberty. Hitherto therefore, and no further, he that wages a just War, has a Right over the Subjects of his Enemy taken Prisoners, and a Power to transfer it firmly to others.

2. But we are taught by Equity and Humanity to put the like Differences, as beforea observed, when we treated concerning killing our Enemies. Demosthenes, in his Epistle for Lycurgus’s Children, highly commends Philip of Macedon, because that he did not make all that were found among his Enemies Slaves.1For he did not think to use all alike, either just or honest; but duly weighing the Merits of each Person, he acted rather the Judge (than Conqueror).

II.What may be done to Slaves by the Right of internal Justice.II. 1. But1 we must observe again here, that the Right which arises, as it were,2 from Surety ship for a State, is not of so large an Extent, as that which is derived from the personal Offences of those that are made3Slaves of Punishment, as they are called. Whereupon a certain Spartan4 said he was a Prisoner, but not<662> a Slave. For if we rightly consider the Thing, this general Right over Prisoners in a just War, is not greater than that which a Lord hath over those Slaves, who by Reason of Poverty have sold themselves to him; excepting, that the Case of those is far more deplorable, who are brought into this Condition, not by their own proper Fact, but by the Fault of their Governors,5It is a dreadful Thing (says Isocrates) to be made a Slave by the Right of War.

2. This Bondage then is a perpetual Obligation to serve the Master, for a perpetual Maintenance. Chrysippus’s6 Definition does very well agree with this Sort of Slaves, A Slave is a perpetual Hireling. And the Law of the Hebrews does directly compare him to a Hireling, who compelled by Necessity, has sold himself for a slave, Deut. xv. 18. Levit. xxv. 40, 53. and will have his Ransom paid by his Labour,7 just as the Fruits of Land sold, shall redeem it for the antient Owner, Lev. xxv. 49, 50.

3. There is then a vast Difference between what may be done to a Slave by the Law of Nations, and what by natural Right. As we have it in the afore-quoted Place of Seneca,8Tho’ it be lawful to do any Thing to a Slave, there is something which the common Right of Animals forbids to be done to the Man. So in Philemon,

• 9 Κἂν δον̂λος ἠ̂ν τις οὐδὲν ἡ̂ττον, δέσποτα
• Ἄνθρωπος ον̂̔τός ἐστιν ἂν ἄνθρωπος ἡ̂.
• What tho’ in Servitude, my Master,
• He is still a Man as much as ever.

So Seneca, in another Place,10Are they Slaves? Yet they are Men. Are they Slaves? Yet our Companions. Are they Slaves? Yet our Friends. Are they Slaves? Yet fellow Slaves. And what we read in Macrobius11 has the same Meaning with that of St. Paul, Coloss. iv. 1. Masters, render to your Servants what is just and right, knowing that you yourselves have a Master in Heaven. And in another Place he advises Masters not to terrify them with Threatnings, for the same Reason before-mentioned; Because we have also a Master in Heaven, with whom is no Respect of Persons. Ephes. vi. 9. In the Constitutions attributed to Clemens Romanus, we are advised, Be not too12severe to thy Man or Woman Slave. Clemens Alexandrinus13 would have us use our Slaves as our second Selves, being Men as well as we; in imitation of that wise Hebrew,14If thou hast a Servant, use him as a Brother, for he is such a one as thyself.<663>

III.It is not lawful to kill an innocent Slave.III. The Power of Life and Death which is ascribed to a Master over his Slave, gives to the former a Sort of domestick1 Jurisdiction; but yet that Power is to be managed with the same Moderation, as do the publick Magistrates. This was Seneca’s Meaning, when he said,2In thy Bondman consider, not what thou mayest inflict on him with Impunity, but what thou mayest do in Equity and Conscience, which requires that we should be merciful to our Captives and purchased Slaves. And in another Place he says,3What signifies it what Government one is under, if he be under a Supreme? In which Place he compares the Subject with the Slave, and says, tho’ they be under different Titles, yet the4 Authority over them is the same; which is certainly very true, with Respect to this Power of Life and Death, and other Things that resemble it. And again, the same Seneca,5Our Ancestors reputed every Family a little Commonwealth. Also Pliny,6A Man’s House is a certain Republick, and as a State to his Slaves. And Plutarch7 tells us, that Cato the Censor would not punish any of his Slaves; no not for the most heinous Offences, unless he were found guilty by his own fellow Servants. To which agree the Words of Job, Chap. xxxi. Ver. 13. and so on.

IV.Not to punish unmercifully.IV. But as to lesser Punishments, viz. Blows, &c. Equity, and also Clemency is to be shewed to Slaves.1Thou shalt not oppress him, nor rule over him with Rigour, says the Divine Law concerning a Hebrew Slave, Lev. xxv. which, as the Title of Neighbour is not now confined to one Nation only, should extend to all Slaves, Deut. xv. 12, &c. On which Place thus 2Philo, Slaves indeed, as to Fortune are Inferiors, but as to Nature equal with their Masters; and, according to the Law of GOD, the Rule of just is not what comes from Fortune, but what is agreeable to Nature. Wherefore Masters ought not to use the Power they have over their Slaves, to gratify their Pride, Insolence, and Cruelty: For these are not the Signs of a meek and peaceable Spirit, but of a passionate and tyrannical Disposition. Seneca<664> puts the Question,3Is it equitable to exercise a more severe and cruel Authority over a Man, than is generally done over Beasts? but a skilful Manager that designs to break a Horse, does not pretend to do it by frequent Blows, for he will be fearful and headstrong, if he be not gently handled. And again, the same Author,4What can be more foolish, than to practise that brutish Cruelty upon a Man (that is our Slave) which we should be ashamed to do to Cattle, or Dogs? On which Account the Hebrew Law ordered the Master to let his Bondman or Bondwoman go free,5Not only for the Loss of an Eye, but even if he had struck out a Tooth, Exod. xxi. 26, 27. that is, if there had been no just Cause to correct them.

V.Not to lay too hard Labour upon them.V. 1. But1 we are also to enjoin them Labour with Moderation, having a Respect to their Strength and Constitution. To which, among other Things, the Hebrew Law pointed in the Institution of the Sabbath, viz. that all might have some Rest from their Labours, Exod. xx. 10. xxiii. 12. Deut. v. 14. And the Epistle of C. Pliny to Paulinus begins thus,2I see how gently you treat your Servants, wherefore I will more freely confess to you with what Tenderness I use mine: Always remembering that Expression of Homer, Like a Father he was indulgent to his Slaves, and this our Pater-Familias, the Father of a Family.

2. Seneca3 takes Notice of the Humanity of the Antients, in using that Word, Do you not observe how careful our Forefathers were to prevent all Occasion of Envy to Masters, and Reproach to Slaves? When they called the Master Pater-Familias, The Father of the Family. And his Slaves Familiares, Domesticks. Dion Prusaeensis,4 describing a good King, says, He is so far from taking a Pleasure in being called Lord and Master of his free Subjects, that he does not willingly receive that Title with Respect to his Slaves. Ulysses declares in Homer,5That those Slaves whom he found faithful, should be regarded by him as the Brothers of his Son Telemachus. And in Tertullian,6The Name of Goodness is more glorious than that of Power, and to be called the Father than the Master of a Family. And Hierom, or Paulinus, thus speaks to Celantia,7So govern and order your Family, that you may seem desirous to be accounted, rather the Mother than the Mistress, and engage your Servants to respect you, rather by Kindness than Severity. And St. Augustine8 makes<665> this Observation, Good Parents formerly so managed their Families, that as to temporal Things the Children had the Advantage of the Servants; but as to Affairs of Religion, there was no Distinction. Whence it came to pass, that every Master was called Pater-Familias, which in Time became so customary, that even severe Masters affected that Title. But they who are true Fathers of Families, do take the same Care of their whole Family, in Regard to the Worship and Service of GOD, as of their own Children.

3. The same Tenderness Servius9 observes to be in the Word Children, by which they meant Slaves, in his Remark upon that of Virgil,

• Claudite jam rivos Pueri.

And thus did the Heracleotae call their Slaves Mariandyni,10 Δωροϕόρους, Carriers of Presents; abating the Harshness of the Name of Slave, as Callistratus, an old Interpreter, observed on Aristophanes. Tacitus11 commends the Germans, who treated their Slaves like Husbandmen. And Theana,12 in an Epistle, says, The right using of Slaves is not to over-work with hard Labour, nor enfeeble them for Want of necessary Sustenance.

VI.The Stock of the Slave, how far the Master’s and how far his own.VI. 1. As I said before, we are obliged to maintain our Slaves for their Work. Cicero says,1We are to use Slaves as Mercenaries, by making them do their Work, and paying them their Due. And in Aristotle,2A Slave’s Wages is his Maintenance. And Cato advises,3Provide carefully for your Family, that it be not starved with Cold or Hunger. There is something, says Seneca,4that a Master owes to his Servant, viz. Food and Raiment. Donatus5 writes, that a Slave was allowed four Bushels of Corn every Month, for his Maintenance. And Martianus the Lawyer informs us, that a Master is obliged to provide his Slave6 Cloaths, and the like.7 The Sicilians are blamed in Histories for cruelly starving the Athenian Prisoners.<666>

2. Seneca8 also, in the fore-mentioned Place, proves, that in Regard to certain Things a Slave has the same Rights as if he were free, and that he may even become a Benefactor to his Master, by doing for him something beyond the Services he owes him, provided he therein Acts, not through Fear and Constraint, but of his own free Will, and out of Affection; which the Philosopher explains at large. So likewise, if a Slave, (as it is in9Terence) save any Thing out of his own Belly, or earned ought in his spare Hours, that properly is his own. Theophylus justly defines the Peculium, οὐσίαν ϕυσικὴν,10 a natural Patrimony, as if you should call the Copulation of Slaves11 a natural Marriage. Ulpian expressly calls the Peculium a small Patrimony.12 Nor does it import much, that his Master may, at his own Pleasure, take it away, or diminish it; for if he does it without Cause he will act unjustly. By a Cause I mean, either by way of Punishment, or for his Lord’s Necessity. For the Interest of the Slave ought to give Place to that of the Master, even more than the particular Interest of Subjects to the Interest of the State. Agreeable to this is that of Seneca,13It does not therefore follow that a Slave has nothing, because he cannot enjoy it unless his Lord pleases.

3. Hence it is, that the Master cannot demand again any Debt due to his Slave, in the Time of his Slavery, which he pays him after his Release. Because (as Tryphoninus14 says) in a personal Action, the Consideration of a Debt, or no Debt, is understood naturally. And the Master may possibly be a Debtor naturally to his Slave. Therefore, as we read thata Clients have contributed something to the Use of their Patrons, and Subjects to the Use of Princes, so have Slaves15 to the Use of<667> their Masters. As if a Daughter were to be portioned out, or a Son to be ransomed, or something like it should happen. Pliny,16 as he himself relates in his Epistles, allowed his Slaves the Privilege of making a Sort of Will, that is so far as to distribute, to give, or bequeath within the Family. Among some Nations we read, that even a fuller Right of acquiring Things was allowed to Slaves, as we have beforeb explained, that there are different Degrees of Servitude.

4. And even the Laws among many Nations have reduced the external Right of Masters unto this internal Justice, of which we are now treating. For among the Greeks it was lawful for Slaves, if they were hard used,17To demand that they might be sold. And at Rome,18 to fly to the Statues (for Refuge) or implore the Assistance of the Governors of Provinces, in Case of Cruelty, Hunger, or intolerable Wrongs. But a Master is not obliged in Rigour to make his Slave free, after a long Service, or a Service whereby the Slave has done for him something of great Importance. If then he grants him his Liberty it is a Favour; tho’ this Favour may be sometimes due by the Laws of Humanity and Beneficence. After that Bondage, says19Ulpian, prevailed by the Law of Nations, the Benefit of Release likewise was allowed. We have an Example of this in Terence,20 <668>

• • Feci è servo ut esses Libertus mihi,
  • Proptereà quod serviebas liberaliter.
• • When you were my Slave, I freed you,
  • Because you serv’d me with Integrity.

Salvian21 declares that it was daily practised, that Slaves, tho’ none of the best, yet if they were not arrant Knaves, were presented with Liberty. And he adds, they were allowed to carry away what they had got in the Time of their Service; of which Generosity in Masters we have many Examples in the Martyrologies. And here I must commend the Lenity of the Hebrew Law, Deut. xv. 13. which absolutely commands, that a Hebrew Slave having served out such a certain Time, shall be set free;22 and that he should not go away empty; the Contempt of which Law the Prophets grievously complain of. Plutarch23 blames Cato the Elder, that he sold his Slaves when they were old, forgetting the common Nature of Mankind.

VII.If Slaves may run away.VII. Here arises a Question, whether it be lawful for a Captive taken in a just War to flee away; I do not mean him who for some personal Fault had deserved that Punishment, but who, by the Fact of the State, has fallen into that Misfortune. According to the most reasonable Opinion he ought not, because, as we have said elsewhere, he is engaged, as a Member of the State, and in its Name, by Vertue of the1 general Convention among Nations; which yet is so to be understood, unless an intolerable Cruelty has forced him to it. You may see the Answer of Gregory Neocaesariensis concerning this Affair.a

VIII.Whether they that are born of Slaves are obliged to the Master, and how far?VIII. 1. We havea in another Place debated the Question, whether, and how far, the Children of Slaves are engaged to the Master by internal Right, which, on the Account of the particular Relation it has to Prisoners taken in War, ought not here to be omitted. If the Parents for their own personal Crimes have deserved Death, their Children, for the saving of their Lives, are obliged to serve, because otherwise they had not been born. For Parents have a Power to sell their own Children for Bondslaves, when they are not able to maintain them, as we have remarked in the same Place. Such a Right did GOD himself give to the Hebrews, over the Posterity of the Canaanites, (Deut. xx. 14.)

2. But for the Debt of a State, Children already born, as being Members of that State, may be obliged, no less than the Parents themselves. But this Reason cannot hold for those that are yet unborn, but some other is required; as the express Consent of the Parents, joined to the Impossibility of having otherwise wherewithal to keep the Children that are born to them, on which Account they are even authorised to render them Slaves for ever. There may be also a tacit Convention between them and their Master, grounded on the Master’s finding Victuals for the Children that are born: But in that Case they engage the Liberty of their Children only till the latter have, by their own Labour, satisfied for those Expences. If any Right beyond this be allowed to the Master over them, it seems to be granted by the Civil Laws, which sometimes give to Masters more than Equity permits.

IX.What may be done where the Bondage of Captives is not in Use.IX. 1. Among those Nations where this Right of Bondage over Captives is not practised, the best Way will be to exchange Prisoners; and, next to that, to release them for a moderate Ransom. Neither can one positively rate the Sum. But common Humanity teaches us, that it should not be so extravagant, as not to leave the ransomed Person the Necessaries of Life. For the Civil Law allows this even to those, who, by their personal Act, are fallen into Debt. In some Places the Price is determined by Cartels, or regulated by Custom, as formerly among the Greeks, the Ransom was a1 Mina, and in our<669> Days a2 Month’s Pay. Plutarch3 tells us, that the Wars between the Corinthians and Megarenses, were waged mildly, and as became Kinsmen. If any one were taken Prisoner, he was entertained by his Captor as a Guest, and, upon his bare Word for paying his Ransom, he was sent Home: Whence came the Name of δορυξένος, a War Guest.

2. But more heroick is that of Pyrrhus, highly applauded by Cicero.4

• • Nec mî aurum posco, nec mî pretium dederitis,
  • Ferro, non auro vitam cernamus utrique.
  • Quorum virtuti belli fortuna pepercit,
  • Eorundem Libertati me parcere certum est.
• • No Gold I seek, no Ransom shall you pay.
  • The Sword alone our Difference shall decide:
  • But those whose Valour the Lot of War respects,
  • I am resolved their Liberty to spare.

No Doubt Pyrrhus thought his War just, yet looked upon himself obliged to restore them their Liberty, whom plausible Reasons had engaged against him. Xenophon commends the like Act in Cyrus. And Polybius, that of Philip the Macedonian, after his Victory at Cheronea. Curtius, that of Alexander to the Scythians: And Plutarch observes, of King Ptolemey and Demetrius, that they strove who should prevail in Civility to the Prisoners, as much as in Battle. And Dromichaetes, King of the Getes,a having taken Lysimachus Prisoner, entertained him as his Guest, and thereby engaged him, being an Eye-Witness of both the Poverty and Civility of the Getes, ever after to desire such People for his Friends, rather than Enemies.

[a ]Chap. II. of this Book, § 4. & seq.

[1 ](P. 714. Edit. Basil. 1572.) Alexander the Great, that Prince’s Son, when he took the City of Thebes, excepted out of the Number of Prisoners that were to be made Slaves, the Priests, and such as had not given their Consent to the publick Ordinances made against him. Which Plutarch tells us in his Life, (p. 670. E.) Grotius.

[1 ]There is here, in the Original: Sed primum notandum est, &c. In the first Edition this was annexed to Num. 2. of the preceding Paragraph; the Author added afterwards what follows, without observing, that he had left a Connection here, which did not agree to what was put between. This I have altered, and take Notice of it, as an Instance of the small Amendments it was necessary to make in several Places, which it would have been too tedious to specify.

[2. ]See the foregoing Chapter, § 1, and 2.

[3. ]Servi poenae. A Term of the Roman Law, for which this is the Reason and Foundation. It was of old the Privilege of all the Roman Citizens, as such, not to be deprived either of their Lives or Liberty, but by their own Consent. The Abuse of this Privilege, having produced great Licentiousness and horrible Disorders, Means were found to elude it by a Fiction of Right. When a Roman Citizen had committed a Crime that merited Death, or some other Punishment, amounting to a Privation of Liberty, he was not condemned as a Citizen, but before Condemnation declared to be no longer a Citizen; he was considered as a Slave, and had the Sentence executed upon him accordingly. See the Probabilia Juris of Mr. Noodt, Lib. III. Cap. XII. and the Observations of Gronovius, Lib. I. Cap. VIII. p. 77. & seq.

[4. ]Plutarch, Apophthegm. [p. 234. C. Vol. II. Edit. Wech.] Philo the Jew, speaking of those who have fallen into the Hands of Pirates, or have been taken by the Enemy, says, that the Laws of Nature, superior to those established amongst Men, declare such Persons free, tho’ a Father or a Son are obliged to ransom them: (Lib. Quod omnis Probus liber, p. 870. E. Edit. Paris.) Thus Theodectes, an antient Poet, makes Helen say,

• • Θεω̂ν ἀπ’ ἀμϕοι̑ν ἐκγόνον ῥιζωμάτων
  • Τίς ἂν προσειπει̑ν ἀξιώσειεν λάτριν.
• • Dared they presume to call a Woman Slave,
  • On both Sides sprung from Gods ———

Grotius.

These two Verses are preserved in Aristotle, Politic. Lib. I. Cap. VI. But they should be read in the Beginning, Θείων δ’ ἀπ’, &c. according to the Paris Edition, and that of Daniel Heinsius.

[5. ]Orat. Plataic. p. 300. A. Edit. H. Steph.

[6. ]Servus, ut placetChrysippo, perpetuus mercenarius est. DeBenefic. Lib. III. Cap. XXII.

[7. ]That is to say, no Regard was had to the Years which had elapsed since the Slave had sold himself, because the Slave was deemed to have gained by his Work for his Master’s Benefit, the Value of what his Master had given him for that Time: So that no more was reckoned than what the Slave might gain in the Years to come, till the Sabbatical Year, or Jubilee, which restored Slaves to their Liberty, without their being obliged to pay any Thing. In like Manner as Lands returned to their antient Owners, in the Year of Jubilee, if the Person, who had sold his Field, would redeem it before that Time, as he might, the Value of the Produce only for the Years which remained to the Jubilee, was reckoned. See the Passages cited in the Text.

[8. ]Chap. X. of this Book, § 1. Num. 3.

[9. ]ApudStobaeum, Tit. I. XII. Some learned Men are for reading δον̂λος ἠ̂, and in the second, ἔαν ἄνθρωπος, &c.

[10. ]Servi sunt? Immo homines. Servi sunt? Immo contubernales. Servi sunt? Immo humiles amici. Servi sunt? Immo conservi, si cogitaveris tantumdem in utrosque licere fortunae. Epist. XLVII. init.

[11. ]Et ut primum de servis loquamur, jocone an serio putas, esse hominum genus, quod Dii immortales, nec cura sua, nec providentiâ, dignentur? An forte servos in hominum numero esse non pateris? Saturn. Lib. I. Cap. XI. The Reader may see the Rest of the Chapter, in which the Author expatiates very much upon this Subject.

[12. ]Lib. VII. Cap. XIV. There is the same Thought in the Letter of St. Barnabas, where he says, that he who treats his Slave with Cruelty, shews, in doing so, that he does not fear him who is the God of both. Grotius.

[13. ]Paedagog. Lib. III. Cap. XII. p. 307. Edit. Oxon. Potter.

[14. ]The Author of Ecclesiasticus, Cap. XXXII.

[1 ]It is not as Master that he has this Power of Life and Death, but as Father of a Family. The reciprocal Engagement, which there is between the Master and the Slave, does not imply this of itself, whether the Slave has sold his Liberty, or has been deprived of it by a Consequence of the Right of War. The perpetual Service, to which the Prisoner of War engages himself, is a sufficient Reward for the Life which the Conqueror spares. The Consent of the Slave, either tacit or express, is necessary to the Master’s having a Right of Life and Death over him; and this tacit Consent is presumed with Reason, when the Custom is such, as it took Place formerly, not only in the Independence of the State of Nature, where every Father of a Family was a Kind of Sovereign in his own House; but even in Civil Societies, as long as the Laws left to the Masters this Right over their Slaves.

[2. ]The Passage has been cited already, in Chap. X. of this Book, § 1. Note 8.

[3. ]Si non dat beneficium Servus Domino; nec Regi quisquam suo, nec Duci suo Miles? Quid enim, interest, qualis quis teneatur imperio, si summo tenetur? De Benefic. Lib. III. Cap. XVIII.

[4. ]Nam si servo quominus in nomen, &c. Ibid.

[5. ]Et Domum pusillam Rempublicam esse judicaverunt [majores nostri]. Epist. XLVII.

[6. ]Nam servis respublica quaedam, & quasi civitas, Domus est, Lib. VIII. Epist. XVI. Num. 2.

[7. ]Vit. M. Caton. p. 349. A.

[1 ]These Words, Thou shalt not oppress him, are ill applied. For, in the seventeenth Verse, from which our Author took them, there is, Thou shalt not oppress one another. And this does not regard Slaves, but the perpetual Alienation of Lands, which the Legislator forbids, under any Pretext whatsoever. The Author cited Deuteronomy in this Place also for Leviticus: From whence it appears, that all this was writ hastily in the first Edition, without having ever been corrected in the Revisals of other Editions.

[2. ]Θεράποντες τύχη μὲν ἐλάττονι ——— ἀλλ’ ὑπ’ ἀκρασίας τὴν ὑπεύθυνον (so it must be read, instead of ἀνεύθυνον) κολαζούσης κατὰ τυραννικὴν δύναμιν. De Legib. Specialib. Lib. II. (p. 728. D. Edit. Paris.) St. Cyprian expresses himself very strongly upon this Head; he maintains, that those who exercise so tyrannical an Authority over their Slaves, do not acknowledge GOD for their Lord and Master. Tamen nisi tibi pro arbitrio tuo serviatur; nisi ad voluntatis obsequium pareatur, imperiosus & nimius servitutis exactor, flagellas, verberas, fame, siti, nuditate, ferro frequenter & carcere, adfligis, & crucias, & non adgnoscis miser Dominum DEUM tuum, quum sic exerceas ipse in hominem dominatum. Ad Demetrian. (p. 188. Edit. Fell. Brem.) See Moses de Cotzi, Praecept. Jub. CXLVII. CLXXV. CLXXVIII. and the Comparison between the Roman Laws and the Law ofMoses, Tit. III. Priscus, in the Excerptae Legationes, where he prefers the Manners of the Romans of his Time to those of the Barbarians, observes, to the Advantage of the former, that they treated their Slaves with much more Humanity. They behave, says he, towards them, as if they were their Fathers or Preceptors. They only chastise them to prevent their doingany Thing dishonest, according to their Notions, and that as if they were their own Children; for they have not a Power of Life and Death over them, as Masters have amongst the Scythians. Besides, with the Romans, Masters have Power to make their Slaves free, as they often do in different Manners, not only during their Lives, but at their Deaths; that last Will being regarded as a Law. (p. 47. Edit. Hoeschel.) See also the Laws of the Wisigoths, Lib. VI. Tit. I. Cap. XII. Grotius.

[3. ]Numquidnam aequum est, &c. De Clement. Lib. I. Cap. XVI.

[4. ]Quid enim stultius quam in jumentis & canibus, &c. Ibid. Cap. XVII.

[5. ]Philo says, that the Master is hereby punished doubly, as he loses both the Slave’s Service, and the Money he gave to purchase it. A third Punishment, adds he, and one still more mortifying than both the former, is the seeing himself compelled to do the greatest Good to a Person whom he hated, and desired perhaps to have Power to distress perpetually. The Slave, on the contrary, is doubly made amends for the Injuries he has suffered, as he not only recovers his Liberty, but is also delivered from the Yoke of so cruel a Master. De legib. special. Lib. II. (p. 808. A. B.) Grotius.

[1 ]See Chap. XIV. of the Letter of the Bishops to King Lewis, inserted in The Capitulary of Charles the Bald. The Athenians treated their Slaves with great Humanity, as Xenophon observes to their Honour, in his Description of the Republick of Athens.Seneca blames those who work their Slaves too hard, as if they were Beasts of Burden, and not Men. Alia interim crudelia & inhumania praetereo, quod nec tamquam hominibus quidem, sed tamquam jumentis, abutimir, &c. Epist. XLVII. Grotius.

[2. ]Video quam molliter tuos, &c. Lib. V. Epist. XIX. The Verse of Homer is in the Odyssey, Lib. II. ver. 47. and 234.

[3. ]Ne illud quidem videtis, &c. Epist. XLVII. This has been copied by Macrobius, in the Place already cited, Saturnal, Lib. I. Cap. XI. p. 235. Edit. Gronov. Our Author observed here in a little Note, that Epicurus called Slaves the Master’s Friends, and cites Seneca to prove it, Epist. CVII. But, on the contrary, Friends are put there in Opposition to the Slaves he mentions, who had run away. The Passage is in the Beginning of the Letter, where that Opposition immediately appears, though there is otherwise some Corruption in the Text.

[4. ]Δεσπότην δὲ οὐχ ὅπως τω̂ν ἐλευθέρων, &c.

[5. ]Odyss. Lib. XXI. ver. 215. & seq.

[6. ]Sed & gratius nomen, &c. Apologet. Cap. XXXIII.

[7. ]Familiam tuam ita rege, &c. Epist. Vol. I. p. 114. Edit. Basil.

[8. ]Domestica pax a justis, &c. De Civit. Dei, Lib. XIX. Cap. XVI. What St. Austin says here of the Motives which Religion supplies, he repeats elsewhere, and remarks, that Slaves, for the same Reason, on the other Side ought to obey their Masters with the greater Alacrity. Tu Dominis servos non tam conditionis necessitate, quam officii delectatione doces adhaerere. Tu Dominos servis, summi Dei scilicet, communis Domini, consideratione placabiles, & ad consulendum, quam ad coercendum, propensiores facis. De Moribus Eccles. Catholicae, Lib. I. Cap. XXX. St. Cyprian had before laid down as a Maxim, that Masters ought to use their Slaves, when converted to Christianity, with more Favour. Testimon. Lib. III. (§ 82. p. 85.) Which he proves by the Passage in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians, vi. 9. Lactantius, speaking of the Equality of Christians, as such; for which Reason they all call one another Brethren; extends that Appellation even to Slaves, who, tho’ of a different Condition, in Regard to the Body, are, as to the Mind and Religion, Brothers, even of their Masters; and Servants of one common Lord. Dicet aliquis: Nonne sunt apud vos alii Pauperes, &c. Instit. Divin. Lib. V. Cap. XV. See also Isidorus, Pelusiot. Lib. I. Epist. CCCCLXXI. Grotius.

The Passage cited here by our Author, as Saint Cyprian’s, is only the marginal Summary, which answers to the Citation of the Passage in Saint Paul.

[9. ]Our Author gives this as said upon the famous Verse of Virgil, Claudite jam rivos, pueri, &c. Eclog. III. ver. ult. But there is nothing like it there. It is on Eclogue VI. that Servius remarks barely, and without adding any moral Reflection that relates to the present Subject, that Domesticks were called Children. Utrum ergo aetate Pueros an ministros & familiares solemus communiter Pueros vocare? In ver. 14.

[10. ]It is Athenaeus who relates this, Lib. VI. Cap. XVIII. But the learned Gronovius is of Opinion, that the Word Δωροϕόροι signifies rather Donors, or Tributaries, and that their being called so is founded upon the Work which they do, either for their own Masters, or such as hire them, being a Kind of Tribute, which is looked upon as a Present. The grammatical Analogy favours this Explication.

[11. ]Frumenti modum Dominus, aut pecoris, aut vestis, ut Colono injungit: Et servus hactenus paret. German. Cap. XXV. Num. 2.

[12. ]She says at the same Time, that it is the Means of gaining the Friendship of Domesticks, which is not bought with them: And gives for the Reason of the Humanity with which they ought to be treated, what has been mentioned upon this Head more than once, viz. that Slaves are Men as well as their Masters. Fragment. Pythagoreor. in Opusc. Mythologicis, Phys. Ethic. &c. Amstel. 1688. p. 746, 747.

[1 ]Quibus [Servis] non male praecipiunt, qui ita jubent uti, ut mercenariis: Operam exigendam, justa praebenda. De Offic. Lib. I. Cap. XIII.

[2. ]Oeconomic. Lib. I. Cap. V.

[3. ]Familiae male ne sit, ne algeat, ne esuriat. De Re Rustic. Cap. V.

[4. ]Est aliquid, quod Dominus praestare servo debeat, ut cibaria, ut vestiarium. De Benefic. Lib. III. (Cap. XXI.) Familia vestiarium petit victumque. De Tranquill. Anim. (Cap. VIII.) The Romans, besieged by the Goths, and pressed by Famine, told Bessas and Conon, who commanded the Army of the Besiegers, “If you would have us surrender ourselves as Prisoners of War, give us Provisions, if not so much as we stand in need of, at least enough to keep us from starving.” Procopius, Gotthic. Lib. III. (Cap. XVII.) St. Chrysostom considers the Obligation of Masters to provide his Slaves with Food and Cloaths, as a Kind of Servitude; because, if he does not discharge that Engagement, the Slaves are discharged from theirs, and no Law, in such Cases, can compel them to serve. In Eph. v. 2. Grotius.

[5. ]Servi quaternos modios accipiebant frumenti in mensem, & id Demensum dicebatur. In Terent. Phormion. Act. I. Scen. I. ver. 10.

[6. ]Those Things, for that Reason, were not deemed to be a Part of the Slaves peculium, which belonged to his Master, tho’ the Slave possessed it as distinct Effects, Si vero tunicas, aut aliquid simile, quod ei Dominus necesse habet praestare, non esse peculium. Digest, Lib. XV. Tit. I. De Peculio, Leg. XL.

[7. ]The Cruelty of the Emperor Isaacus Angelus to the Sicilians, whom he had made Prisoners of War, is also censured by Nicetas, who recites a Letter writ by the King of Sicily to the Emperor, upon that Subject. Vit. Isaac. Ang. Lib. I. Cap. III. Grotius.

[8. ]Et eo perducam servum, &c. De Benefic. Lib. III. Cap. XIX. and XXI.

[9. ]

• Quod ille unciatim vix de demenso suo
• Suum defraudens genium, comparsit miser.
• Phorm. Act. I. Scen. I. ver. 9, 10.

[10. ]Institut. Lib. IV. Tit. VII. Quod cum eo qui in al. pot. &c. §4. Homer makes Eumaeus say, that if Ulysses had returned to his House, he would have given him a House, an Inheritance, a desirable Wife, in a Word, every Thing that a good Master could give a faithful and affectionate Domestick.

• Ὅς κεν’ ἐμ’ ἐνδυκέως, &c.

Odyss. Lib. XIV. (ver. 62. & seq.) Ulysses himself makes a like Promise to Eumaeus, and the other Shepherd Philoetius, Lib. XXI. (ver. 214, 215.) Varro advises Masters to treat their Slaves with Humanity, to supply them plentifully with Food and Raiment, to give them Relaxation from Labour, and suffer them to feed some Cattle of their peculium, in their Grounds, in Order to encourage them to work with the more Zeal. Studiosiores ad opus fieri, &c. (De Re Rustic. Lib. I. Cap. XVII.) Grotius.

The learned Civilian Francis Hotman observes, that the Word Peculium is derived from the Custom of giving Slaves some Herd to feed, as their own Property, Riches consisting at first in Cattle. And he cites upon it, (Comm. in Tit. Digest, De Pecul. § 2.) this other Passage of Varro. Tu, inquit, tibicen non solum adimis Domino pecus, sed etiam Servis Peculium, quibus Domini, dant ut pascant, &c. De Re Rustic. Lib. I. Cap. II.

[11. ]See above, B. I. Chap. III. § 4. Num. I.

[12. ]Peculium dictum est, quasi pusilla pecunia, seu patrimonium pusillum. Digest, Lib. XV. Tit. I. De pecul. Leg. V. § 1. Very well: But this Patrimony, according to the Principles of the Roman Law, did not cease to belong entirely to the Master. (Institut. Lib. II. Tit. XII. Quibus non est permissum facere Testament. princ.) The Slave did not possess it by a civil Right. Et Peculium, quod Servus civiliter, quidem possidere non posset, sed naturaliter tenet, Dominus creditur possidere. Digest, Lib. XLI. Tit. II. De adquir. vel amitt. Possessione, Leg. XXIV. And he might make himself guilty of Theft, in Regard to his own Stock: Quum autem Servus rem suam peculiarem, furandi consilio amovet—Si alii tradiderit, furtum faciet, Lib. XLVII. Tit. II. De Furtis, Leg. LVI. § 3. All Acquisitions came also to the Master, Instit. Lib. II. Tit. IX. Per quas personas nobis adquiritur, § 1, 3. So that a Slave is only improperly said sometimes to have a Kind of Patrimony. See the great Cujas, in his Work Ad Africanum, Tractat. II. upon Law CVII. § 1. Digest, De Legat. I. Our Author seems here to have had that Passage in View. See also Laurentius Pignorius, De servis, p. 4. Edit. Patav. 1656.

[13. ]He had just said, that tho’ the Peculium and Person itself of the Slave, belonged to the Master, the Slave, however, might make his Master a Present, Num quid dubium est, &c. De Benefic. Lib. VII. Cap. IV.

[14. ]Si quod Dominus servo, &c. Digest. Lib. XII. Tit. VII. De condictione indebit. Leg. LXIV.

[a ]Dion. Halic. Antiq. Rom. l. 2. c. 10.

[15. ]The Example of Contributions for the Portion of a Daughter, or the Ransom of a Son taken Prisoner, is indeed confirmed in Regard to Clients, by the Authority of Dionysius Halicarnasensis, in the Place quoted in the Margin: But in Relation to Slaves, I am very much mistaken if our Author had any other Authority than what we read in the Scene of a Comedy in Terence, from which he has cited something before, Note 9. We there see a Slave makes a Present to the Bride his Master’s Son had married, out of his Savings. He that speaks, who is himself a Slave, believes, that his Friend will be obliged to do as much when his Mistress shall be brought to bed, on the Child’s Birth-Day, and that of his being initiated in certain Mysteries.

• Nam herilem filum ejus duxisse audio
• Uxorem: Ei, credo, munus hoc conraditur.
• * * * * * * * * * * * *
• ——— Porro autem Geta
• Ferietur alio munere, ubi hera pepererit:
• Porro autem alio, ubi erit puero natalis dies,
• Ubi initiabunt, &c.

Phormio, Act. I. Scen. I. ver. 5, 6, 12. & seq. For the Rest, I am surprized that our Author forgot one Thing in this Place, which makes very much for his Subject; that is, that amongst the Romans, a Slave might ransom himself by an Agreement with his Master, to whom he gave, as the Price of his Liberty, either what he had laid up by his Savings, or received from the Liberality of others, or got in any other Manner. This Custom was introduced early, as Seneca not only speaks of it, (Peculium suum, quod compararunt ventre fraudato, pro capite numerant, &c. Epist. LXXX.) but there are also Proofs of it in Plautus, (Aulul. Act. V. ver. 8, 9. Casin.) Act. II. Scen. V. ver. 6. & seq. Rudent. Act. IV. Scen. II. ver. 23, 24.) The Emperors Marcus Antoninus and Verus, confirmed afterwards the Validity of such a Convention, in giving the Slave Power to complain juridically, and obliging the Master to infranchise him; in Default of which the Slave was declared free, as appears by the Digest, Lib. V. Tit. I. De judiciis, Leg. LIII. and LXVII. Lib. XL. Tit. I. De manumissionibus, Leg. IV. V. &c. See Jacobus Raevardus, In divers. Reg. Juris, Leg. XVI. (p. 174. & seq. Edit. Wechel. 1622.) Justus Lipsius, upon Tacitus, Annal. Lib. XIV. Cap. XLII. Cujas, Recit. in Digest. Vol. IV. Opp. Edit. Fabrott. p. 164. and the President Brisson, De Formulis, Lib. VI. p. 559.

[16. ]Alterum, quum permitto, &c. Lib. VIII. Ep. XVI.

[b ]B. ii. ch. 5. § 30.

[17. ]See Pollux, Lib. VII. § 13. and the Commentators upon it.

[18. ]Nam Antoninus consultus a quibusdam Praesidibus provinciarum de his servis qui ad Aedem sacram, vel ad statuam principum confugiunt, praecipit, ut si intolerabilis videatur saevitia Dominorum, cogantur servos suos bonis conditionibus vendere.—Sed & Dominorum interest, ut auxilium contra saevitiam, vel famem, vel intolerabilem injuriam, denegetur iis, qui juste deprecantur. Ideoque cognosce de querelis eorum, &c. Institut. Lib. I. Tit. VIII. De his qui sui vel alieni juris, § 2.

[19. ]Sed postea quam Jure Gentium Servitus invasit, sequutum est beneficium manumissionis. Digest, Lib. I. Tit. I. De Justit. & Jure, Leg. IV.

[20. ](Andr. Act. I. Scen. I. ver. 10, 11.) I read servibas in these Verses, after the Manuscripts, and not serviebas.Varro informs us, that in Feronia’s Grove the Romans used to say to their Slaves, Let those who have deserved well, sit down Slaves and rise up Freedmen. It was customary in some Places to give Slaves their Liberty, when they had earned eight Times as much as they had cost their Masters. Grotius.

What our Author observes here upon Varro’s Authority, he certainly had from Servius: But that Grammarian says it of his own Head, in speaking of the Goddess Feronia’s Temple at Terracina: For she was the Goddess of Freedmen, and there was there a Stone Seat, where the Slaves were made to sit down, when the Cap was given them, as a Sign of their being made free. The Words in Question were cut on this Seat. Haec etiam [Feronia] Libertorum Dea est, in cujus Templo raso capite pileum accipiebant. — In hujus Templo Tarracinae sedile lapideum fuit, in quo hic versusincisus erat:Bene meriti Servi sedeant: Surgant Liberi. In Aeneid, VIII. ver. 564. Our Author’s Mistake arose, from the Commentator’s giving Varro’s Etymology of the Name of the Goddess, immediately after the Passage cited. QuamVarrolibertatem [libertatis should be read] Deam dicit Feroniam quasi Fidoniam. The Reader may see further, concerning this Goddess, the Notes of Torrentius upon Horace, Lib. I. Sat. V. ver. 24. The learned James Godefroy, proves from the Passage of Servius, and other Authorities, that amongst the antient Greeks and Romans, the freeing of Slaves was often performed in the Temples consecrated to the false Divinities, and that it was from this Custom the Emperor Constantine took the Manner of infranchising in Churches, which he established by a Constitution, come down to us. But this great Civilian, (in Cod. Theodos. IV. 7. De Manum, in Eccl. L. unic. p. 355. Vol. 1.) quotes Plutarch, in the Life of Publicola, where I can find nothing that makes for the Subject. And in the Citation from Livy, Lib. II. is quoted probably for Lib. XXII. Cap. I. towards the End. Which may be observed by the Way.

[21. ]In usu siquidem quotidiano, &c. Ad Eccles. Catholic. Lib. III. p. 413. Edit. Paris. 1645.

[22. ]Custom interpreted this Law, so that no less than thirty Shekels ought to be given. See the Rabbi Moses de Cotzi, Praecept. Jubent. LXXXIV. Grotius.

[23. ]In Vit. M. Caton. p. 338, 339. See what follows, where the Reflection is extended, even to Beasts.

[1 ]Or rather by Virtue of the Convention, express or tacit, which he has made with the Conqueror, for sparing his Life. See what I have said above, Chap. VII. of this Book, § 6. Note 2.

[a ]Respons. 16.

[a ]See B. ii. ch. 5. § 29.

[1 ]That is to say, about ten Crowns of French Money. Our Author has probably taken this from Aristotle, who however does not ascribe this Custom to the Greeks; he gives it only as an Example of Things arbitrary in themselves, which are regulated in a certain Manner, by the Laws and Customs of States, but does not say amongst which it was established. Ethic. Nicomach. Lib. V. Cap. X. And that the Ransom of a Prisoner of War was not fixed at a Mina, according to the Custom of the Greeks, I find a clear Proof in Demosthenes. For, in speaking of some Greeks taken by Philip of Macedon, he says, that one of those Prisoners borrowed for his Ransom three, another five, Minae, and others more or less, according as their Ransom was rated. Orat. de male obit. legation. p. 222. A. Edit. Basil. 1572.

[2. ]In the War made by the French against the Spaniards in Italy, the Ransom of an Horseman was a fourth Part of his Year’s Pay, but the Captains, and other superior Officers, and Prisoners taken in a Battle, or a Siege, were not included in this Rate. This Mariana tells us, Lib. XXVII. Cap. XVIII. Grotius.

[3. ]Quaest. Graec. p. 295. B. Vol. II. Edit. Wechel.

[4. ](De Offic. Lib. I. Cap. XII.) Tiberius, the Christian Emperor, acted with the like Generosity in Regard to the Persians; and Menanderthe Protector praises him for it, (Cap. XVII, p. 141. Edit. Hoeschel.) Mariana praises Sisebutus for the same Conduct, (Lib. VI. Cap. III.) as also Sancho King of Castile: De rebus Hispanic. Lib. XI. (Cap. V.) Grotius.

[a ]Strabo, l. 7.