[IDEM libro sexagensimo quinto digestorum. ] §38.1.25.prPatronus, qui operas liberti sui locat, non statim intellegendus est mercedem ab eo capere: sed hoc ex genere operarum, ex persona patroni atque liberti colligi debet.
[THE SAME, in the sixty-fifth book of the Digests.] A patron who leases out the services of his freedman is not immediately to be understood as receiving a wage from him; but this must be gathered from the kind of services, and from the person of the patron and of the freedman.
§38.1.25.1Nam si quis pantomimum uel archimimum libertum habeat et eius mediocris patrimonii sit, ut non aliter operis eius uti possit quam locauerit eas, exigere magis operas quam mercedem capere existimandus est.
For if someone should have a pantomimist or a chief mime as a freedman, and his estate is so moderate that he cannot otherwise make use of his services than by leasing them out, he must be deemed to be demanding services rather than receiving a wage.
§38.1.25.2Item plerumque medici seruos eiusdem artis libertos perducunt, quorum operis perpetuo uti non aliter possunt, quam ut eas locent.
Likewise, doctors often manumit slaves of the same art, whose services they cannot constantly use in any other way than by leasing them out.
ea et in ceteris artificibus dici possunt.
These things can also be said in the case of other artisans.
§38.1.25.3Sed qui operis liberti sui uti potest et locando pretium earum consequi mallet, is existimandus est mercedem ex operis liberti sui capere.
But he who is able to make use of the services of his freedman and prefers to obtain their price by leasing them out, he must be deemed to be receiving a wage from the services of his freedman.
§38.1.25.4Nonnunquam autem ipsis libertis postulantibus patroni operas locant: quo facto pretium magis operarum quam mercedem capere existimandi sunt.
Sometimes, however, patrons lease out the services at the request of the freedmen themselves; when this is done, they must be deemed to be receiving the price of the services rather than a wage.