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ABSTRACT: Lacking a specific nomenclature, Juni an Latins are indistinguishable from fully manumitted liberti. However, because of the Augustan age restriction imposed on formal manumission, we can be sure that they were numerous among freedmen who died aged 30 or below. The epigraphic dataset of this age group comprises 1307 individuals. The proportion who may have obtained full citizenship before their death will have been low: the bulk of the 1307 can be supposed to have been Junian Latins. The data also reveal that they carried mainly Latin cognomina, thus disproving the old assumption that a Greek cognomen signifies ex-slave, a Latin cognomen free birth.
Keywords: Junian Latins - manumission - freedmen - Roman citizenship - cognomina - epigraphy
1.Informally freed slaves and Junian Latinity
Slaves who were manumitted by other means than vindicta, census or testament, or who did not belong to their master ex iure Quiritium, did not become Roman citizens. Instead they were made Junian Latins and assimilated to the colonial Latins by a legal fiction. Their status was established and regulated by the lex Iunia of 17 BC and the lex Aelia Sentia ofAD 4, complemented later by further legislation.1 It remained in force until its abolition by Justinian in AD 531.2 Such status was sometimes seen as second class freedom, mainly because Junian Latins were not able to dispose of their property at their death: it would return to their patron as if it were the peculium of a slave.3 IfJunian Latinity was undeniably advantageous for the patron, it was an enviable prospect for a slave too, because it granted him legal freedom. Importantly Junian Latinity was, or could be, a transitional status: it held a real hope of promotion to full citizenship, as a reward for loyalty and good services.
The lex Aelia Sentia had introduced an important restriction to manumission: that of a minimum age - 30 years old - at which a slave could be formally manumitted.4 It had also regulated Junian Latins' access to Roman citizenship. Thereafter, they could become Roman citizens by iteratio or anniculi probatio or by becoming testamentary heir to an insolvent master.5 Later, additional means to obtain citizenship were opened up for them by the emperors and the senate.6 From the...