Roman jurists - in particular Florentine and Ulpian - proposed a definition of freedom that lies between nature and law. Their definitions have influenced the modern concept of human rights. But for Roman jurists, recognizing the existence of freedom by nature meant creating a space where the role of slaves could be taken into account without altering their submission " against nature " to the power of others.
The category of " persona " enables jurists to consider human beings in a wide variety of ways, without confining them to a single condition. Man thus becomes a role, like the Roman actors who wore a mask, and by wearing the mask became the character they were playing. The sign that the condition of men, at first unique, then diversifies and segments, is constituted by the multiplication of names, which serve to distinguish, to segregate." And while we are called by a single natural name, that is, men, according to the law of nations there came to exist three kinds :the free, their opposite the slaves and a third kind, the freed ". To name is therefore to institute.
