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138 138 On the Rommi Coloni. that one is uncertain whether it is meant to designate a par- ticular sort of colonic or is merely a synonym for the whole class ^^^: but there is one passage which leaves no doubt that the latter is the case ^ : and the probability seems to be that all these names were in use for the same order of citizens, one prevailing more in one province, another in another. Before I conclude I have to add a few general remarks on the history of this order in the Roman state ; but I must preface them by observing that this is the very branch of the subject which is the most obscure. In our lawbooks we find mention of the coloni from the time of Constantine down- ward^, and that too very widely diffused from the first, throughout all parts of the empire, for instance even in Gaul and Italy ^. After this time their condition was al- ways regarded as a most important object of legislation; and in this light it appears in Justinian*'s collections, and in his own laws. There being no mention of them in the Institutes is to be accounted for from their not having been spoken of in Gains : this however is the cause why modern jurists, on whose views the system of the Institutes has always exercised a preponderating influence, have left them almost wholly unnoticed. If we go further back than the time of Constantine, we find nothing but dubious traces of them. In a passage of the Pan- dects Marianus speaks of a testament by which inquilini are bequeathed without the estate they are attacht to : this bequest, he says, is of no eflfect with regard to the object exprest in 103 L. un. C. Theod. de inquil. (v. 10). L. 2. C. Theod. si vagum (x. 12). L. 6. C.J. de agric. (xi. 47). L. un. C. J. de col. Illyr. (xi. 52). L. 11. C. J. comm. utr. jtid. (in. 38). 4 L. 13. pr. C. J. de agiic. (xi. 47) : Definimus, ut inter inquilinos colonosve, quorum quantum ad originem (i. e. prolem) vindicandam indiscreta eademque paene videtur esse conditio^ licet sit discrimen in nomine^ etc, Cujaciuses notion that the coloni and inquilini were, properly speaking, the freer classes of the hereditarily dependent peasantry, as opposed to the adscriptitii^ is totally unfounded. 5 L. 1. C. Theod. d€ fug. col. (v. 9) is a law of Constantine's, as early as the year 332. 6 In Gaul, L. 13. 14. C. J. de agric. (xi. 47) :— in Italy, L. 3. C. Theod. de censu (xiii. 10), that is, L. 2. C. J. de agric. (xi. 47): Imp. Constantius A. ad Dulcitium consulsLxem Aemiliae : — in Palestine, Thrace, Illyria, Cod. J. Lib. xi. Tit. 50, 51, 52, etc. And this institute speaks of it everywhere under the same form.