His overseers were under contract never to bleed them; but he manumitted only a few at his death.
His name, in which the Greek Avbpovucos is combined with the gentile name of one of the great Roman houses, while indicative of his own position as a manumitted slave, is also significant of the influences by which Roman literature was fostered, viz.
In addition to the common treasury, supported by the general taxes and charged with the ordinary expenditure, there was a special reserve fund, also in the temple of Saturn, the aerarium sanctum (or sanctius), probably originally consisting _of the spoils of war, afterwards maintained chiefly by a 5% tax on the value of all manumitted slaves, this source of revenue being established by a lex Manlia in 357.
It is probable, however, that the latter, like the liti or lati of later times, consisted not only of manumitted slaves but also of whole communities which had forfeited their liberty through unsuccessful warfare or other causes.
Justinian abolished the personal conditions which the legislation of Augustus had required to be satisfied by the master who emancipated and the slave who was manumitted, and removed the limitation of number.