Definition
In Roman law, *Latini* (singular: *Latinus*) referred to a category of freedmen who occupied an intermediate legal status between full Roman citizenship and slavery. Freed slaves who became Latini did not acquire the complete bundle of rights belonging to Roman citizens (*cives Romani*), but they were no longer enslaved. The category took its name from the Latin peoples (*Latini*) of the Italian peninsula, whose historical relationship with Rome gave rise to a recognized but subordinate legal status.
Two principal subcategories developed in Roman legal thought:
1. **Latini Coloniarii**: Persons descended from, or analogized to, the Latin colonies allied with Rome. As applied to freedmen, this designation identified those whose manumission was performed in a technically defective or informal manner — for example, freed by a master who did not hold full title, or freed without the prescribed formalities of Roman law. These freedmen could own property and engage in commerce but could not vote, hold office, or access certain legal protections reserved for full citizens.
2. **Latini Juniani**: A class created by the *Lex Junia Norbana* (c. 19 CE), designating freedmen informally manumitted who were granted personal freedom during their lifetimes but whose property reverted to their former masters upon death, as if they had never been freed. They were said to "live free, die slave" (*vivunt liberi, moriuntur servi*). They lacked testamentary capacity entirely.
The status of *Latinus* was not immovable. Pathways existed under Roman law by which a *Latinus* could ascend to full citizenship — through military service, marriage, raising children to a certain age, or by meeting other statutory conditions.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
- **Latini Coloniarii**: The older category, rooted in Rome's historical relationship with Latin colonies; applied by analogy to certain freedmen.
- **Latini Juniani**: The more legally significant class for jurisprudential purposes, created by statute, defined by the peculiar condition that freedom was personal and temporary, with no heritable or testamentary rights.
Why It Matters in Research
*Latini* is a term of pure Roman civil law with no direct common-law analogue. Researchers encountering the term in historical legal sources should note several navigational points.
First, the term appears almost exclusively in sources dealing with Roman law, canon law commentaries borrowing Roman frameworks, or civil law jurisdictions with deep Roman heritage (particularly Scottish, Dutch, and South African common law traditions, which preserved civilian vocabulary longer than English common law did).
Second, the distinction between *Latini Coloniarii* and *Latini Juniani* matters because later jurists — including the Glossators and Commentators of the medieval period — often collapsed or confused the two. When reading secondary medieval sources, a researcher cannot assume precision in subcategory usage without checking the underlying classical source.
Third, the concept connects directly to Roman law's elaborate taxonomy of *status* — the tripartite inquiry into freedom (*libertas*), citizenship (*civitas*), and family standing (*familia*). Understanding *Latini* requires situating it within that broader status framework. See also SERVUS, CIVIS, MANUMISSION, and FREEDMAN in this dictionary.
Fourth, the *Latini Juniani* category was formally abolished by Justinian in the *Corpus Juris Civilis* (Institutes 1.5.3), who declared all such freedmen elevated to full citizen status. References to *Latini* in post-Justinianic sources are therefore often historical or academic rather than operative legal descriptions.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary identifies *Latini* under the Roman civil law headings and correctly places the term in the context of an inferior class of freedmen who did not enjoy the full privileges of Roman citizenship. The entry is brief and does not distinguish the *Coloniarii* and *Juniani* subcategories, which is a meaningful omission for research purposes — the two classes carried substantially different legal consequences, particularly regarding inheritance and testamentary capacity.
Burrill's treatment reflects the broader limitation of nineteenth-century Anglo-American legal dictionaries when handling Roman law terms: they acknowledged Roman vocabulary but often collapsed fine civil law distinctions that civilian jurists treated as operationally critical. For the fuller taxonomy, researchers should consult Gaius's *Institutes* (Books 1 and 3) and Justinian's *Institutes* (Book 1, Title 5), which remain the primary sources on the *Latini* classification.
Jurisdictional Note
This term has no operative significance in modern common law jurisdictions. In jurisdictions with living civilian traditions — notably South Africa, Scotland, and Louisiana — Roman status terminology may appear in historical legal scholarship and older judicial opinions, but *Latini* as a legal status was extinguished by Justinian in the sixth century CE and does not describe any recognized modern category.