[PAULUS libro quadragensimo ad edictum. ] §38.1.20.prquod nisi fiat, praetorem ipsam patrono denegaturum operarum praestationem: idque est uerum, quia unusquisque, quod spopondit, suo impendio dare debet, quamdiu id quod debet in rerum natura est.
[PAULUS, in the fortieth book on the Edict.] And if this is not done, the praetor will refuse the performance of the services itself to the patron; and this is true, because everyone ought to give at his own expense what he has promised, as long as that which he owes exists in the nature of things.
§38.1.20.1Ex prouincia libertum Romam uenire debere ad reddendas operas Proculus ait: sed qui dies interea cesserint, dum Romam uenit, patrono perire, dummodo patronus tamquam uir bonus et diligens pater familias Romae moraretur uel in prouinciam proficiscatur: ceterum si uagari per orbem terrarum uelit, non esse iniungendam necessitatem liberto ubique eum sequi.
Proculus says that a freedman must come from the province to Rome to render his services; but that the days which have meanwhile passed while he is coming to Rome are lost to the patron, provided that the patron remains at Rome or is setting out for the province as an honorable man and diligent father of a family; but if he wishes to wander through the world, the necessity of following him everywhere should not be imposed on the freedman.