Potestas domini
“power of master over slave”
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 3 anchored passages
potestas · dominical power · power of life and death
in the texts
Institutes of Roman Law
The legal power of masters over slaves, including life-and-death authority and its later restriction.
Slaves are in the power of their proprietors, a power recognized by jus gentium, since all nations present the spectacle of masters invested with power of life and death over slaves;
Of persons subject to a superior, let us first examine who are in his power.
Those who are dependent or subject to a superior, are either in his power, in his hand, or in his mancipation.
Lectures on the Early History of Institutions
The Roman legal term for a father's power over his children.
We cannot give a reason, other than mere chance, why power over a wife should have retained the name of manus, why power over a child should have obtained another name, potestas, why power over slaves and inanimate property should in later times be called dominium.