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A freedman or freedwoman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed either by manumission (granted freedom by their owner) or emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group). A fugitive slave is one who escaped slavery by fleeing. ==Ancient Rome== (詳細はGreek city-states in allowing freed slaves to become citizens. The act of freeing a slave was called ''manumissio'', from ''manus'', "hand" (in the sense of holding or possessing something), and ''missio,'' the act of releasing. After manumission, a slave who had belonged to a Roman citizen enjoyed not only passive freedom from ownership, but active political freedom ''(libertas)'', including the right to vote.〔Fergus Millar, ''The Crowd in Rome in the Late Republic'' (University of Michigan, 1998, 2002), pp. 23, 209.〕 A slave who had acquired ''libertas'' was thus a ''libertus'' ("freed person," feminine ''liberta'') in relation to his former master, who then became his or her patron ''(patronus)''. As a social class, freed slaves were ''liberti'', though later Latin texts used the terms ''libertus'' and ''libertini'' interchangeably.〔Henrik Mouritsen, ''The Freedman in the Roman World'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 36; Adolf Berger, entry on ''libertus'', ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law'' (American Philological Society, 1953, 1991), p. 564.〕 ''Libertini'' were not entitled to hold public office or state priesthoods, nor could they achieve legitimate senatorial rank. During the early Empire, however, freedmen held key positions in the government bureaucracy, so much so that Hadrian limited their participation by law.〔Berger, entry on ''libertinus'', ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law'', p. 564.〕 Any future children of a freedman would be born free, with full rights of citizenship. The Claudian Civil Service set a precedent whereby freedmen could be used as civil servants in the Roman bureaucracy. In addition, Claudius passed legislation concerning slaves, including a law stating that sick slaves abandoned by their owners became freedmen if they recovered. The emperor was criticized for using freedmen in the Imperial Courts. Some freedmen enjoyed enormous success and became quite wealthy. The brothers who owned House of the Vettii, one of the biggest and most magnificent houses in Pompeii, are thought to have been freedmen. A freedman who became rich and influential might still be looked down on by the traditional aristocracy as a vulgar ''nouveau riche''. Trimalchio, a character in the ''Satyricon'' of Petronius, is a caricature of such a freedman. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Freedman」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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