Sub potestate

SUB POTESTATE. Under or subject to the power of another; as, a wife is under the power of her husband; a child subject to that of his father; a slave to that of his master.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.

References in periodicals archive ?

According to Skinner, a key text on slavery is in Justinian's Digest: "There we learn that slavery can be defined as 'an institution of the ius gentium by which someone is, contrary to nature, subjected to the dominion of someone else.'" From this definition, Skinner proceeds, "it follows that what it means for someone to lack the status of a free subject must be for that person not to be sui iuris but instead to be sub potestate, under the power or subject to the will of someone else (Quentin Skinner, "Classical liberty, Renaissance translation and the English civil war," in Visions of Politics, Vol.