DEDITICII

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). [Blacks Law 8th]