Legal Definitions - Latini Juniani

Latini Juniani refers to a specific legal status in ancient Roman law for individuals who had been freed from slavery but did not acquire full Roman citizenship. This status granted them some rights and privileges as free people during their lifetime, but it came with significant limitations compared to full Roman citizens.

These individuals were considered a special class of freedmen. While they could own property and engage in business, they lacked public rights such as voting or holding office. Crucially, they could not make a will to pass on their property, nor could they inherit property through a will. If a Latinus Junianus died without having achieved full Roman citizenship, their legal status effectively reverted to slavery upon death, and all their accumulated property would typically pass to their former owner, known as their patron. However, a significant aspect of this status was that any children born to a Latinus Junianus were considered free-born Roman citizens, not subject to the same limitations as their parent.

• Imagine a former slave named Marcus, who was informally freed by his master. As a Latinus Junianus, Marcus opens a successful pottery workshop and accumulates a comfortable amount of wealth, including his workshop, tools, and a small house. However, Marcus never manages to obtain full Roman citizenship. When Marcus dies, because he was still a Latinus Junianus, his legal status is retroactively considered to revert to slavery, and all his property—his workshop, tools, and house—is legally claimed by his former master (his patron), rather than being passed on to any family or friends he might have wished to benefit.

  This example illustrates how a Latinus Junianus could acquire property during their lifetime but faced the severe consequence of having their assets revert to their patron upon death if they had not achieved full citizenship.

• Consider a woman named Julia, who was freed from slavery and became a Latina Juniana. She marries another freedperson and they have two children, who, by Roman law, are born as full Roman citizens. Julia works hard and saves money, hoping to leave her modest savings to her children. However, because her status as a Latina Juniana prevents her from making a valid will, she cannot legally designate her children as heirs to her savings. Upon her death, without full citizenship, her property would likely revert to her patron, despite her desire for her citizen children to inherit it.

  This scenario highlights two key aspects: the fact that children of a Latinus Junianus were born as full Roman citizens, and the significant disability of the Latinus Junianus themselves, who could not make a will to dispose of their property as they wished.