The respond of Roman law to the relation between 'free woman and slave man': senatus consultum Claudianum

Abstract

Since 1st century CE the relation between a free Roman woman and the slave of another person was regulated by a decree of the Senatus, enacted during the reign of Clau-dius (hence, termed as sc Claudianum) and the fate of the legal consequences of such a relation was to be left solely to the will of the master. According to the rules of this sc Cla-udianum, a free Roman woman who co-habits with the slave of another person would be-come the slave of that person -provided that he did denounce the relation- or his freedwo-men -provided that he consented to the relation-Under Roman Law, a free woman and a slave could never had a valid marriage and accordingly, their relationship would have no legal effects whatsoever. The interesting fact which calls here for further scrunity is that the Roman Senatus did actually enact a decree on a relationship which was legally irrelevant. Thus making the social dynamics behind sc Claudianum as well as its ratio legis subjects of areas that needs deeper investigation and comprehension. With the dawn of the 1st century, Rome started to go in an evergoing change: It all started with a change in the administration; followed by a change in the society, change in its values, change in the labor relations, and change in its law. One the main indicators of the -social- change was the increasing number of instances of status confusions and the increasing tendecny to mixed-relatios. Such relations being nullum (void) for Roman law did not stop free women to co-habit with other people’s slaves; it also did nothing to deaden the convinction of mixed-relations being a threat to the master’s domination over his slave. Ultimately, Pallas, the imperial freedmen of Claudius who was also in charge of the treasury, drew up a decree targeting relations about which he may know a thing or two. He then referred it to his patron and the emperor proposed his freedman’s decree to the Senate which was accepted as a binding resolution. The purpose, therefore, was not to categorically prevent relations between the ‘free’ and the ‘slave’ nor to punish free women for co-habiting with a slave. Sc Claudianum was not about legislating morality or reclaiming the natural order of things. It was about protecting the rights of the master over his slave who was in a ‘natural’ marriage with a free woman and thus asserting the master’s supremacy.