Self-sale ad actum gerendum in Classical Roman Law

Ulpian (Ad Sab. 10: D. 28. 3. 6. 5) mentions self-sale ad actum gerendum (i.e. in order to become a manager) along with self-sale ad pretium participandum (i.e. in order to share the price) as causa servitutis which led the Roman to the loss of his citizenship. The author argues that the self-sale ad actum gerendum as well as ad pretium participandum was a special fraudulent scheme according to which a free-man who allowed himself to be sold as a slave enriched at the expense of a deceived buyer (his putative master after purchasing) – the pretended slave appropriated the money which he had made secretly taking advantage of his responsible manager po-sition – and won in a legal case concerning freedom (causa liberalis). Bringing an action against the deceiver could not provide effective protection of the buyer in that case. In order to prevent the realization of the fraudulent scheme and to punish the wrongdoer the alleged master as a defendant in the causa liberalis was given the op-portunity to raise the special defence emptionis atque actus administrati, which led to denegatio proclamationis of the alleged slave, i.e. he was barred from claiming his liberty, and thus he became a ‘slave de facto’ who was equated to a true slave.

Roman Empire, Roman law, slavery, slave as a manager, self-sale, self-enslavement