§2.27.1καὶ οὐδʼ ἐνταῦθα ἔστη τῆς ἐξουσίας ὁ τῶν Ῥωμαίων νομοθέτης, ἀλλὰ καὶ πωλεῖν ἐφῆκε τὸν υἱὸν τῷ πατρί, οὐδὲν ἐπιστραφεὶς εἴ τις ὠμὸν ὑπολήψεται τὸ συγχώρημα καὶ βαρύτερον ἢ κατὰ τὴν φυσικὴν συμπάθειαν.
And the legislator of the Romans did not stop his authority even there, but he also permitted a father to sell his son, paying no regard to whether anyone would consider this allowance cruel and too harsh to be compatible with natural affection.
καὶ ὅ πάντων μάλιστα θαυμάσειεν ἄν τις ὑπὸ τοῖς Ἑλληνικοῖς ἤθεσι τοῖς ἐκλελυμένοις τραφεὶς ὡς πικρὸν καὶ τυραννικόν, καὶ τοῦτο συνεχώρησε τῷ πατρί, μέχρι τρίτης πράσεως ἀφʼ υἱοῦ χρηματίσασθαι, μείζονα δοὺς ἐξουσίαν πατρὶ κατὰ §2.27.2παιδὸς ἢ δεσπότῃ κατὰ δούλων.
And what anyone brought up under the relaxed Greek customs would wonder at most of all as bitter and tyrannical, this also he granted to a father, namely, to make a profit from his son up to three sales, giving greater authority to a father over his child than to a master over his slaves.
θεραπόντων μὲν γὰρ ὁ πραθεὶς ἅπαξ, ἔπειτα τὴν ἐλευθερίαν εὑρόμενος αὑτοῦ τὸ λοιπὸν ἤδη κύριός ἐστιν, υἱὸς δὲ πραθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς εἰ γένοιτο ἐλεύθερος ὑπὸ τῷ πατρὶ πάλιν ἐγίνετο, καὶ τὸ δεύτερον ἀπεμποληθείς τε καὶ ἐλευθερωθεὶς δοῦλος ὥσπερ ἐξ ἀρχῆς τοῦ πατρὸς ἦν· μετὰ δὲ τὴν τρίτην πρᾶσιν ἀπήλλακτο τοῦ πατρός.
For of servants, he who has been sold once, and has then obtained his freedom, is henceforth master of himself; but a son, having been sold by his father, if he should become free, came again under his father's power, and even when sold a second time and set free, he was still the slave of his father as from the beginning; but after the third sale, he was released from his father.
§2.27.3τοῦτον τὸν νόμον ἐν ἀρχαῖς μὲν οἱ βασιλεῖς ἐφύλαττον εἴτε γεγραμμένον εἴτε ἄγραφον ʽοὐ γὰρ ἔχω τὸ σαφὲς εἰπεῖνʼ ἁπάντων κράτιστον ἡγούμενοι νόμον.
This law was observed at first by the kings, whether written or unwritten (for I cannot say with certainty), since they regarded it as the best of all laws.
καταλυθείσης δὲ τῆς μοναρχίας, ὅτε πρῶτον ἐφάνη Ῥωμαίοις ἅπαντας τοὺς πατρίους ἐθισμούς τε καὶ νόμους ἅμα τοῖς ἐπεισάκτοις ἐν ἀγορᾷ θεῖναι φανεροὺς ἅπασι τοῖς πολίταις, ἵνα μὴ συμμεταπίπτῃ τὰ κοινὰ δίκαια ταῖς τῶν ἀρχόντων ἐξουσίαις, οἱ λαβόντες παρὰ τοῦ δήμου τὴν ἐξουσίαν τῆς συναγωγῆς τε καὶ ἀναγραφῆς αὐτῶν δέκα ἄνδρες ἅμα τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνέγραψαν νόμοις, καὶ ἔστιν ἐν τῇ τετάρτῃ τῶν λεγομένων δώδεκα δέλτων, ἃς ἀνέθεσαν ἐν ἀγορᾷ.
But when the monarchy was abolished, and when it first seemed fit to the Romans to place all their ancestral customs and laws, together with those imported from abroad, in the forum in order to make them manifest to all the citizens, so that public rights might not shift together with the powers of the magistrates, the decemvirs, who received from the people the authority for their collection and transcription, recorded this along with the other laws; and it is in the fourth of the so-called Twelve Tables, which they set up in the forum.
§2.27.4ὅτι δʼ οὐχ οἱ ἄνδρες δέκα οἱ τριακοσίοις ἔτεσιν ὕστερον ἀποδειχθέντες ἐπὶ τὴν ἀναγραφὴν τῶν νόμων πρῶτοι τοῦτον εἰσηγήσαντο τὸν νόμον Ῥωμαίοις, ἀλλʼ ἐκ πολλοῦ κείμενον παραλαβόντες οὐκ ἐτόλμησαν ἀνελεῖν, ἐκ πολλῶν μὲν καὶ ἄλλων καταλαμβάνομαι, μάλιστα δʼ ἐκ τῶν Νόμα Πομπιλίου τοῦ μετὰ Ῥωμύλον ἄρξαντος νόμων, ἐν οἷς καὶ οὗτος γέγραπται· ἐὰν πατὴρ υἱῷ συγχωρήσῃ γυναῖκα ἀγαγέσθαι κοινωνὸν ἐσομένην ἱερῶν τε καὶ χρημάτων κατὰ τοὺς νόμους, μηκέτι τὴν ἐξουσίαν εἶναι τῷ πατρὶ πωλεῖν τὸν υἱόν· ὅπερ οὐκ ἂν ἔργαψεν εἰ μὴ κατὰ τοὺς προτέρους νόμους ἅπαντας ἐξῆν τῷ πατρὶ πωλεῖν τοὺς υἱούς.
But that the decemvirs, who were appointed three hundred years later for the recording of the laws, were not the first to introduce this law to the Romans, but having received it as established long before, did not dare to abolish it, I gather from many other proofs, but especially from the laws of Numa Pompilius, who ruled after Romulus, among which this also is written: "If a father permits his son to marry a wife who, according to the laws, is to be a sharer in his sacred rites and property, the father shall no longer have the authority to sell his son." This Numa would not have written, unless under the former laws it was permitted to all fathers to sell their sons.
§2.27.5ἀλλʼ ὑπὲρ μὲν τούτων ἅλις, βούλομαι δὲ καὶ τὸν ἄλλον ἐπὶ κεφαλαίων διελθεῖν κόσμον, ᾧ τοὺς τῶν ἰδιωτῶν ὁ Ῥωμύλος ἐκόσμησε βίους.
But concerning these matters enough has been said; and I wish also to run through, in summary, the other order with which Romulus adorned the lives of private citizens.