[IDEM libro septimo digestorum. ] §50.16.203.prIn lege censoria portus Siciliae ita scriptum erat: 'seruos, quos domum quis ducet suo usu, pro is portorium ne dato'. quaerebatur, si quis a Sicilia seruos Romam mitteret fundi instruendi causa, utrum pro his hominibus portorium dare deberet nec ne.
[THE SAME, in the seventh book of the Digests.] In the censorial law of the port of Sicily, it was written as follows: 'For slaves, whom anyone leads home for his own use, he shall not pay port-dues.' The question was asked whether, if anyone sent slaves from Sicily to Rome for the purpose of equipping an estate, he ought to pay port-dues for these men or not.
respondit duas esse in hac scriptura quaestiones, primam, quid esset 'domum ducere', alteram, quid esset 'suo usu ducere'.
He answered that there were two questions in this writing: first, what "to lead home" meant; second, what "to lead for one's own use" meant.
igitur quaeri soleret, utrum, ubi quisque habitaret siue in prouincia siue in Italia, an dumtaxat in sua cuiusque patria domus esse recte dicetur.
Therefore, it used to be asked whether a "home" was rightly said to be where each person dwelt, whether in a province or in Italy, or only in each person's native city.
sed de ea re constitutum esse eam domum unicuique nostrum debere existimari, ubi quisque sedes et tabulas haberet suarumque rerum constitutionem fecisset.
But on this matter, it had been established that that should be considered the home for each of us, where each had his dwelling and his account books and had established the management of his property.
quid autem esset 'usu suo', magnam habuisse dubitationem.
But as to what "for his own use" meant, there had been great doubt.
et magis placet, quod uictus sui causa paratum est, tantum contineri.
And the view is more approved that only what has been provided for the sake of one's own sustenance is included.
itemque de seruis eadem ratione quaeri, qui eorum usus sui causa parati essent? utrum dispensatores, insularii, uilici, atrienses, textores, operarii quoque rustici, qui agrorum colendorum causa haberentur, ex quibus agris pater familias fructus caperet, quibus se toleraret, omnes denique seruos, quos quisque emisset, ut ipse haberet atque eis ad aliquam rem uteretur, neque ideo emisset, ut uenderet? et sibi uideri eos demum usus sui causa patrem familias habere, qui ad eius corpus tuendum atque ipsius cultum praepositi destinatique essent, quo in genere iunctores, cubicularii, coci, ministratores atque alii, qui ad eiusmodi usum parati essent, numerarentur.
And likewise concerning slaves, it is asked by the same reasoning, which of them have been provided for the sake of one's own use? Whether accountants, apartment managers, bailiffs, hall-porters, weavers, and also rustic laborers, who were kept for the purpose of cultivating fields from which the head of the family gathered fruits to sustain himself—in short, all slaves whom anyone had bought in order to keep them himself and use them for some purpose, and had not bought for the purpose of selling? And he thought that only those were held by the head of the family for the sake of his own use, who had been appointed and designated for the protection of his person and his own personal care, in which class carriage-drivers, chamberlains, cooks, attendants, and others who were provided for use of this kind would be numbered.