| Summary: | <p>This paper deals with the legal meaning of the statement of the Roman jurist Ulpian (c. 170 AD-228 AD), in a society in which slavery was recognized and widely practiced, according to which <em>‘utpote cum iure naturale omnes liberi nascerentur nec esset nota manumissio, cum servitus esset incognita’ </em>(Ulp.1.1 Inst. D. 1. 1. 4). The investigation focuses on the juridical problems in which the syntagma <em>‘libertas naturalis’</em> occurs before Ulpian, by analyzing some texts of Gaius (2nd century AD) from his works <em>Institutiones and Res cottidianae.</em> This has revealed a relevance of the natural freedom both in terms of the loss of domination over captured wild animals and in terms of ways of extinction of war slavery. This implies a consideration of the statement of Ulpian in a debate among the Roman jurists in which the particular position taken by this jurist stands out with respect to the value to be recognized to the <em>‘libertas naturalis’ </em>of all human beings on the level of the Natural Law.</p>
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