122 On the Roman Coloni such an agreement ^l This constitution speaks of the evi- dence requisite to shew that a person is a colonus^ and enacts that a single proof, such for instance as a written contract^ an acknowledgement in court, a registering in the tax-books, should not be sufficient, but that there should be a com- bination of at least two such proofs. Now what is here spoken of as evidence for the previous existence of such a relation, might without doubt be employed as a form of agreement when a free man wanted to enter into it for the first time : for if he concluded a written contract, and after- ward sio^nified his assent to its substance before the court, the law was fully satisfied, and he could not withdraw himself again from his dependence. Indeed this process may perhaps have been the real object of the ordinance; and it may arise merely from an inaccuracy of expression that the proofs appear to be the only things spoken of. The rights and obligations contingent to the colonus were of three kinds : some related to his personal condition, others to his connexion with the soil, others to his property and taxes. As to the personal condition of the colonic they were free, that is, distinct from the slaves; but it unquestionably bore a great resemblance to that of the slaves. That they were distinct from the slaves, is proved by the following evidence. In several imperial constitutions they are mentioned along with the slaves, and by way of opposition to them^^. In others they are expressly declared to be ingenui ^". We find too that they were held capable of contracting a real, genuine marriage ^'^, which slaves, it is well known, were not ^^ The same thing is implied in the punishment with which they 25 L. 22. pr. C. J. de agric. (xi. 47). 26 L. 21. C. J. de agric. (xi. 47) : Ne diutius dubitetur, si quis ex adscriptitia et libero, vel ea^ adscriptitia et servo^ vel adscriptitio et ancilla fuisset editus, etc. Com- pare L. 7. C. eod. Nov. Valent. Tit. 9. 27 L. un. C. J. de colonis Thracensibus (xi. 51) : Ipsi quidem originario jure teneantur : et licet conditione videantur ingenui^ servi tamen terrae ipsius, cui nati sunt, existimentur etc. 28 L. 24. C. J. de agric. (xi. 47). Nov. Valent. Tit. 9. 29 L. 5. § 1. D. de bonis damnatorum (xlviii. 20) : Nam cum libera mulier rema- neat^ nihil prohibet et virum mariti affectionem^ et mulierem uxoris animum retinere. Consequently a slave could not possibly be in a state to fulfill this primary condition of all marriages : Nov. 22. C. 10. Non dicimus solvi matrimonium sed ab ipso initio neque matrimonium fieri.
