[IDEM libro septimo digestorum. ] §40.1.7.prDuo filii familias peculiares seruos separatim uterque habebant: ex his alter seruulum suum peculiarem uiuo patre manumisit: pater utrique testamento peculium praelegauerat.
[THE SAME, in the seventh book of Digests.] Two sons under paternal power each had slaves in their peculium separately; of these, one manumitted his young slave from his peculium while their father was still living. The father had by will pre-bequeathed the peculium to each of them.
quaerebatur, seruus iste utrum amborum, an eius a quo manumissus erat libertus esset.
The question was asked whether that slave was the manumitted slave of both, or of the one by whom he had been manumitted.
respondit, si prius testamentum pater fecisset, quam filius eum liberum esse iussisset, unius esse libertum, ideo quod eum quoque in peculio legasse uideretur: sed si postea testamentum pater fecisset, non uideri eam mentem eius fuisse, ut eum, qui manumissus esset, legaret eumque seruum, quoniam praelegatus non esset, mortuo patre amborum seruum fuisse.
He answered that if the father had made his will before the son had ordered him to be free, he was the manumitted slave of the one alone, because he seemed to have bequeathed him also as part of the peculium; but if the father had made his will afterwards, it did not seem to have been his intention to bequeath one who had been manumitted, and since he had not been pre-bequeathed, that slave, upon the father's death, was the slave of both.