If the surviving slaves number twenty, one-third of them is emancipated by drawing lots. Should any of them die before the division takes place, their death does not bar the remainder from being set free; the bequest simply applies to those who are still alive.

Thus, if out of fifty slaves forty die and ten remain—the very number named in the will—those ten are freed, provided their value fits within the one-third share. If only fifteen survive, two-thirds of them fall within that one-third share; if twenty survive, half of them are liberated. The calculation proceeds in this manner perpetually.

The same ruling holds when the deceased had bequeathed the slaves to another person: the judgment concerning them is exactly as stated above.

If a man bequeaths the emancipation of his slaves while he is indebted to an amount that would swallow up their value, the manumission is invalid. Should the debt be less than their total value, lots are drawn among the slaves. Whoever’s name is drawn is sold to meet the debt until it is satisfied, after which the remainder are reviewed and one-third of them are freed by lot.

If the lot happens to fall on a slave whose value exceeds the debt, only so much of him is sold as covers the debt. What is left after payment is then reconsidered: lots are drawn again. If the lot now falls on the remainder and its value equals exactly one-third, he is set free; if it still does not reach that amount, lots are drawn yet again among those left, so that a value equivalent to one-third is emancipated and the rest remain in servitude.

When a man in sound health emancipates his slaves although he carries a debt that consumes part of their value, an equal fraction of each slave is sold so that the combined proceeds satisfy the debt. Each slave is then freed in proportion to what remains of him, and in this case no lots are drawn—neither among these slaves nor among anyone other than those manumitted by testamentary bequest.

If, during his lifetime, a man declares, “One of my slaves is free,” without identifying him in word or by any other evidence, one slave is set free—whichever the owner later chooses. Some have maintained, however, that all of them would thereby be emancipated, by analogy with a man who pronounces a divorce upon “one” of his wives.