[ULPIANUS libro quinquagensimo quinto ad edictum. ] §40.12.10.prQuod autem diximus 'in libertate fuisse' sic est accipiendum non ut se liberum doceat is, qui liberale iudicium patitur, sed in possessione libertatis sine dolo malo fuisse.
[ULPIAN, on the Edict, book fifty-five.] Moreover, what we said, 'to have been in a state of freedom', is to be understood not in the sense that the person who undergoes a trial concerning his freedom must prove himself to be free, but that he was in possession of freedom without bad faith.
quid sit autem 'sine dolo malo fuisse', uideamus.
But let us see what 'to have been without bad faith' means.
nam Iulianus ait omnes, qui se liberos putant, sine dolo malo in libertate fuisse, si modo se pro liberis gerant, quamuis serui sint.
For Julian says that all who think themselves to be free have been in a state of freedom without bad faith, provided only that they conduct themselves as free persons, although they are slaves.
Uarus autem scribit eum, qui se liberum sciat, dum in fuga sit, non uideri sine dolo malo in libertate esse: sed simul atque desierit quasi fugitiuus se celare et pro libero agere, tunc incipere sine dolo malo in libertate esse: etenim ait eum, qui scit se liberum, deinde pro fugitiuo agit, hoc ipso, quod in fuga sit, pro seruo agere,
Varus, however, writes that a person who knows himself not to be free, as long as he is in flight, is not seen to be in a state of freedom without bad faith; but as soon as he ceases to hide himself as a fugitive and to act as a free person, then he begins to be in a state of freedom without bad faith; for he says that one who knows himself not to be free, and then acts as a fugitive, by this very fact that he is in flight, acts as a slave.