But as this principle was the same among all nations, and as a citation from many of their histories would not be less tedious than unnecessary, we shall select the example of the Romans for the consideration of the case.
The law, by which prisoners of war were said to be sentenced to servitude, was the _law of nations_[043].

It was so called from the universal concurrence of nations in the custom.

It had two points in view, the _persons_ of the _captured_, and their _effects_; both of which it immediately sentenced, without any of the usual forms of law, to be the property of the _captors_.
The principle, on which the law was established, was the _right of capture_.

When any of the contending parties had overcome their opponents, and were about to destroy them, the right was considered to commence; a right, which the victors conceived themselves to have, to recall their swords, and, from the consideration of having saved the lives of the vanquished, when they could have taken them by the laws of war, to commute _blood_ for _service_.

Hence the Roman lawyer, Pomponius, deduces the etymology of _slave_ in the Roman language.
"They were called _servi_[044], says he, from the following circumstance.