Editing Adoption in ancient Rome (section)

====The freedman adoptee====
Most often adoption would have been a lateral move or a modest boost to the adoptee's standing and wealth, but a [[Freedmen in ancient Rome|freedman]] could also be adopted. A slave might even be simultaneously [[Slavery in ancient Rome#Manumission|manumitted]] and adopted by his former master, who became both his patron ''([[Patronage in ancient Rome|patronus]])'' and his "father". The adoption of a freedman placed his property under the control of his new ''paterfamilias''; it no longer belonged to him, but it would return to him along with the rest of his inheritance. The choice of a freedman for adoption may have been motivated most often by gaining access to his resources rather than securing lineage.{{sfn|Lindsay|2009|p=134}}

In the [[Roman Republic|early Republic]], a freedman through adoption gained the same status as the freeborn citizen who freed him.{{sfn|Gardner|1989|pp=252 ''et passim''}}  By the time of [[Tiberius]], the adopted freedman was regarded as an unemancipated son in matters of family law but held only the rights of freedpersons otherwise.{{sfn|Gardner|1989|p=241}} Legislation that more closely regulated the varied statuses of ''liberti'' left the adoptee as a freedman who could not, for example, marry into the senatorial order even if he was adopted by a senator.{{sfn|Lindsay|2009|p=134}}