[MARCIANUS libro quarto regularum. ] §40.5.53.prSi quis rogatus ancillam manumittere moram fecerit, si interea enixa fuerit, constitutum est huiusmodi partum liberum nasci et quidem ingenuum.
[MARCIANUS in the fourth book of Rules.] If anyone who has been requested to manumit a female slave has fallen into delay, and she has given birth in the meantime, it has been established that a child born in this manner is born free, and indeed freeborn.
sed sunt constitutiones, quibus cauetur statim ex quo libertas deberi coeperit ingenuum nasci: et hoc magis est sine dubio sequendum, quatenus libertas non priuata, sed publica res est, ut ultro is qui eam debet offerre debeat.
But there are constitutions by which it is provided that, from the very moment that freedom begins to be due, the child is born freeborn; and this opinion is undoubtedly the one to be followed, since freedom is not a private but a public matter, so that he who owes it ought to offer it of his own accord.
sed si nondum debita libertate fideicommissa ancilla peperit, studio tamen heredis fuerit effectum, ut nondum libertas deberetur, ueluti quod tardius adit hereditatem, ut qui nati sint ex ancilla serui eius fiant, placet manumittendos, sed tradi matri oportere, ut ab ea manumitterentur et liberti potius matris fiant: nam quos indignus est heres seruos habere, ne quidem libertos habebit.
But if the female slave subject to a trust gave birth when freedom was not yet due, but it was nevertheless brought about by the design of the heir that freedom was not yet due—for example, because he was slower in entering upon the inheritance, so that those born of the female slave might become his slaves—it is held that they must be manumitted, but they ought to be delivered to their mother, so that they may be manumitted by her and become the freedmen of their mother instead; for the heir shall not even have as freedmen those whom he is unworthy to have as slaves.