dediticii (ded-i-tish-ee-Ior dee-di-tI-shee-I), n. pl.[Latin “those who have surrendered”] Roman law. The lowest class of freemen whose members were ineligible for Roman citizenship, including enemies granted freedom in exchange for surrender, or, under the Lex Aelia Sentia, manumitted slaves convicted of a crime in a court, or branded or put in chains by their former owners. • Dediticii who were formerly slaves were not allowed to live within 100 miles of Rome. Justinian abolished this status. — Also spelled dedititii. — Sing. dediticius, dedititius.
“Dediticii … were not reduced to slavery, but to a condition quite analogous. They were not allowed to make a will, or to take under one; they never obtained Roman citizenship, and they could not come within one hundred miles of the city of Rome.” Andrew Stephenson, A History of Roman Law § 119, at 324 (1912).
“Slaves who before manumission had been subjected to degrading punishment (e.g. had been branded or made to fight in the arena) were given, on manumission, a special status, viz. that of enemies surrendered at discretion (dediticii). A dediticius, though free and not a slave, had none of the rights of a citizen, could never under any circumstances better his position (e.g. become a citizen), and was not allowed to live within 100 miles of Rome.” R.W. Leage, Roman Private Law 67 (C.H. Ziegler ed., 2d ed. 1942).
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