Aulus Gellius 5.19 Translation copyright 2001 Neil W. Bernstein;
all rights reserved. What adoption [adoptatio] and adrogation
[adrogatio] are and how they differ. The formula that a person
adrogating children uses to put this matter before the Roman
people. - When strangers are taken into another family in the
place of legitimate children, the act happens either through the
authority of the praetor or of the Roman people. - When the act
happens through the praetor's authority, it is called "adoption"
[adoptatio]; through the people's authority, "adrogation"
[adrogatio]. - Individuals are adopted as follows: their
fathers, who hold legal power over them, cede them their rights
through a triple emancipation [mancipatio] (1). They are claimed
by the adopters in a legal action before a judge. - Individuals
are adrogated when, being under their own control [sui iuris],
they give themselves into another person's legal power and are
themselves responsible for this action. - But adrogations are
not undertaken random