8. He who is either adopted or arrogated is assimilated, in many points, to a son born in lawful matrimony; and therefore, if any one adopts a person who is not a stranger by imperial rescript, or before the praetor, or the praeses of a province, he can afterwards give in adoption to another the person whom he has adopted.
9. It is a rule common to both kinds of adoption, that persons, although incapable of procreating, as, for instance, impotent persons, may, but those who are castrated cannot adopt.
10. Women, also, cannot adopt; for they have not even their own children in their power; but, by the indulgence of the emperor, as a comfort for the loss of their own children, they are allowed to adopt.
11. Adoption by the rescript of the emperor has this peculiarity. If a person, having children under his power, should give himself in arrogatio, not only does he submit himself to the power of the arrogator, but his children are also in the arrogator’s power, being considered his grandchildren. It was for this reason that Augustus did not adopt Tiberius until Tiberius had adopted Germanicus; so that directly the adoption was made, Germanicus became the grandson of Augustus.
12. Cato, as we learn from the ancients, has with good reason written that slaves, when adopted by their masters, are thereby made free. In accordance with which opinion, we have decided by one of our constitutiones that a slave to whom his master by a solemn deed gives the title of son is thereby made free, although he does not require thereby the rights of a son.
XII. Freeing From Power.
Let us now inquire into the different ways in which persons in the power of others are freed from it. How slaves are freed from the power of their masters may be learnt from what we have already said with regard to manumission.
Those who are in the power of a parent became independent at his death; a rule, however, which admits of a distinction. For when a father dies, his sons and daughters become undoubtedly independent; but when a grandfather dies, his grandchildren do not necessarily become independent, but only if on the grandfather’s death they do not fall under the power of their father.
Therefore, if their father is alive at the death of their grandfather, and was in his power, then, on the grandfather’s death, they become subject to the power of their father. But, if at the time of the grandfather’s death their father is either dead, or has already passed out of the grandfather’s power by emancipation, as they do not fall under the power of their father, they become independent.
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