Germ. 25.1Cēterīs servīs nōn in nostrum mōrem dēscrīptīs per familiam ministeriīs ūtuntur: suam quisque sēdem, suōs penātēs regit.Their other slaves they do not employ in our fashion, with duties assigned throughout the household: each controls his own dwelling, his own home. Germ. 25.1Frūmentī modum dominus aut pecoris aut vestis ut colōnō iniungit, et servus hāctenus pāret;The master imposes on him a quantity of grain or cattle or cloth, as on a tenant, and the slave obeys so far; Germ. 25.1cētera domus officia uxor ac līberī exequuntur.the other duties of the house are carried out by the wife and children. Germ. 25.2Verberāre servum ac vinculīs et opere coercēre rārum: occīdere solent, nōn disciplīnā et sevēritāte, sed impetū et īrā, ut inimīcum, nisi quod impūne est.To flog a slave or to punish him with chains and hard labour is rare: they often kill one, not through discipline and severity, but in a fit of passion and anger, as they would an enemy, except that it goes unpunished. Germ. 25.3Lībertī nōn multum suprā servōs sunt, rārō aliquod mōmentum in domō, numquam in cīvitāte, exceptīs dumtaxat iīs gentibus quae regnantur.Freedmen are not much above slaves, rarely of any weight in the household, never in the state, except only among those peoples that are ruled by kings.
Germ. 25.3Ibi enim et super ingenuōs et super nōbilēs ascendunt: apud cēterōs imparēs lībertīnī lībertātis argūmentum sunt.For there they rise above both the freeborn and the nobles: among the rest the inferior position of freedmen is the proof of freedom.