Since as we have already remarked, slavery among the Romans existed jure gentium and jure civili, and no one was a slave jure naturae, nothing hindered a slave becoming a freedman. This change of condition was effected by what is called manumission, (manumissio) inasmuch as the master released the slave from his own power—a right, which seems to have belonged to the master from the earliest times, although mention is found, that before Servius Tullius, the manumission formed the basis