Emanzipation als rite de passage

Abstract

Abstract Emanzipation as rite de passage. Formula Visigothica 34 (7th c.) describes an emancipation. The text suggests that sons of Romans had an expectation to be released in this way from the paternal power when they reached the age of majority. Emancipation was specifically dealt with in their law, the Lex Romana Visigothorum. Some of these do not figure in Justinian’s Code. They might fit the gap, otherwise filled by excerpts from the Theodosian Code, which, however, C. 8,48,6 of 531 would have made outdated. Form. 34 treats the emancipation as a rite de passage. As such it would have accommodated those peoples, made Roman in 212, whose children normally reached majority at a certain age but now were subjected to the Roman patria potestas-system. In this way the old situation would be restored within the Roman setting. Two Theodosian constitutions indicate indeed such a general use.