# Ingenui

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{{For|the Roman commander with this name|Ingenuus}}{{Technical|date=December 2023}}
'''''Ingenui''''' (singular ''ingenuus'' or [feminine](/source/grammatical_gender) ''ingenua'') was a legal description of persons who were born free in [ancient Rome](/source/ancient_Rome), as distinguished from [free people who had once been slaves (''liberti'' or ''libertae'').](/source/Ancient_Roman_freedmen)<ref name="DGRA">{{Cite book  | last = Long  | first = George  | author-link = George Long (scholar)  | contribution = Ingenui  | editor-last = Smith  | editor-first = William  | title = [Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities](/source/Dictionary_of_Greek_and_Roman_Antiquities)  | pages = 637  | publisher = [Little, Brown and Company](/source/Little%2C_Brown_and_Company)  | place = Boston  | year = 1870  | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-dgra/0644.html  | access-date = 2008-06-06  | archive-date = 2013-10-19  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131019224906/http://ancientlibrary.com/smith-dgra/0644.html  | url-status = dead  }}</ref> '''''Ingenuitas''''' was the abstract noun for this status.

Free men were either ''ingenui'' or ''libertini''. ''Ingenui'' indicated free men who were born free.<ref>Gaius, i. 11</ref> ''Libertini'' were men who were [manumitted](/source/manumission) from legal slavery. Although freedmen were not ''ingenui'', the sons of ''libertini'' were ''ingenui''. A ''libertinus'' could not by adoption become ''ingenuus''.<ref>[Aulus Gellius](/source/Aulus_Gellius), v. 19</ref> If a female slave (''ancilla'') was pregnant and was manumitted before she gave birth to the child, that child was born free and therefore was ''ingenuus''. In other cases, also, the law favored the claim of free birth and consequently of ''ingenuitas''.<ref name="paulus">[Paulus](/source/Paul_(jurist)), ''Sent. Recept.'' iii. 24, and v. 1. ''De liberali causa''</ref> If a man's ingenuitas was a matter in dispute, the dispute could be heard by a ''judicium ingenuitatis'',<ref name="paulus" /><ref>[Tacitus](/source/Tacitus), ''[Annales](/source/Annals_(Tacitus))'' xiii. 27</ref> a court to determine status with regard to patronal rights.<ref>{{cite book  | last = De Colquhoun  | first = Patrick Mac Chombaich  | title = A Summary of the Roman Civil Law  | publisher = V. and R. Stevens and Sons  | date = 1851  | location = London  | pages = [https://archive.org/details/ASummaryOfTheRomanCivilLawV2/page/n374 362]  | url = https://archive.org/details/ASummaryOfTheRomanCivilLawV2  }}</ref>

The words ''ingenuus'' and ''libertinus'' are often opposed to one another, and the title of freeman (''liber''), which would comprehend ''libertinus'', is sometimes limited by the addition of ''ingenuus''.<ref>''liber et ingenuus'', [Horace](/source/Horace) ''ar. P.'' 383</ref> According to [Cincius](/source/Cincius), in his work on [Comitia](/source/Comitia), quoted by [Festus](/source/Sextus_Pompeius_Festus),<ref>[Sextus Pompeius Festus](/source/Sextus_Pompeius_Festus), ''s.v.'' Patricios</ref> those who in his time were called ''ingenui'' were originally called ''patricii'', which is interpreted by some scholars such as [Carl Wilhelm Göttling](/source/Carl_Wilhelm_G%C3%B6ttling) to mean that [Gentile](/source/Gentile)s were originally called ''ingenui'' also, an interpretation that is the subject of some dispute. Others interpret the passage to mean that originally the name ''ingenuus'' did not exist and that the word ''patricius'' was sufficient to indicate a Roman citizen by birth. The passage from Cincius refers, under this interpretation, to a time when there were no Roman citizens except ''patricii'', and the definition of ingenuus, if it had then been in use, would have been a sufficient definition of a patricius. But the word ingenuus was introduced, in the sense here stated, at a later time for the purpose of indicating a citizen by birth specifically. Thus, in the speech of [Appius Claudius Crassus](/source/Appius_Claudius_Crassus),<ref>[Livy](/source/Livy), vi. 40</ref> he contrasts with persons of patrician descent, "Unus Quiritium quilibet, duobus ingenuis ortus." 

Further, the definition of ''Gentilis'' by [Scaevola](/source/Quintus_Mucius_Scaevola_Pontifex) shows that a man might be ingenuus and yet not gentilis, for he might be the son of a freedman; this is consistent with [Livy](/source/Livy).<ref>[Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex](/source/Quintus_Mucius_Scaevola_Pontifex), quoted in [Cicero](/source/Cicero), ''[Topica](/source/Writings_of_Marcus_Tullius_Cicero)'' 6</ref><ref>[Livy](/source/Livy), x. 8</ref> If Cincius meant his proposition to be comprehensive, the proposition is this: All (now) ''ingenui'' comprehend all (then) ''patricii;'' which is untrue.

Under the [Roman Empire](/source/Roman_Empire), ''ingenuitas'', or the ''Jura Ingenuitatis'', might be acquired by imperial favor; that is, a person not ''ingenuus'' by birth could be made so by the sovereign power. A freedman who had obtained the ''Jus Annulorum Aureorum'', was considered ''ingenuus'', but this did not interfere with the patronal rights.<ref>Dig. 40. tit. 10. s. 5 and 6</ref> The ''natalibus restitutio'' was a decree in which the [princeps](/source/princeps) gave to a ''libertinus'' the rights and status of ''ingenuus'';<ref>{{cite book  | last = Morey  | first = William C.  | title = Outlines of Roman Law: Comprising Its Historical Growth and General Principles  | publisher = [G. P. Putnam's Sons](/source/G._P._Putnam's_Sons)  | date = 1884  | location = New York  | pages = [https://archive.org/details/outlinesromanla04moregoog/page/n160 128]  | url = https://archive.org/details/outlinesromanla04moregoog  }}</ref> it was a form of proceeding that involved the theory of the original freedom of all mankind, for the ''libertinus'' was restored not to the state in which he had been born but to his supposed original state of freedom. In this case, the patron lost his patronal rights as a necessary consequence, if the fiction were to have its full effect.<ref>Dig. 40. tit. 11</ref> It seems that questions as to a man's ''ingenuitas'' were common at Rome.

==References==
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Category:Social classes in ancient Rome
Category:Ancient Roman titles
Category:Latin legal terminology
Category:Roman law

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ingenui](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenui) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenui?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.