The Same Emperor to Stylianus, Most Illustrious Master of the Offices.

Marriage is the greatest and most excellent gift which has been bestowed by God upon man, for it not only repairs the losses which death inflicts upon nature, and insures the perpetuation of the human race by not permitting it to perish, but also, by means of the procreation of children, it confers inestimable benefits upon life. For what, indeed, is more consoling to man than the enjoyment by which he begets children; and what is more advantageous to the affairs of humanity, especially during our old age, for We see that through the ministry of our children, the annoyance of declining years is diminished.

But as all those who marry are not fortunate enough to have issue, the law has provided that they should owe to its beneficence what was denied them by Nature. Still, this was done in such a general way as to bestow its benefits upon everyone; for in granting certain persons the privilege of obtaining children without the aid of marriage, it has excluded many others from its enjoyment. It would, however, have been proper for everyone to participate in the advantages of laws intended to assuage the grief of parents who have been bereft of their children, and to come to the relief of those whose marriages have not given them any. But this was not the case, and it excludes from this privilege those who are impotent, although they should only inspire compassion. It states as a reason for this exclusion that the law should not recognize persons whom Nature does not consider qualified for generation as suitable for this function. Still, their impotence should be attributed to the injury of man, and not to Nature. Hence, as We do not think that the law should be as cruel as those who have inflicted this outrage upon them, it is hereby decreed that if eunuchs should wish to adopt anyone, they shall have the power to do so; but this privilege should only be exercised where its necessity is perfectly clear.

The adoption of children granted by law is above all necessary to eunuchs, and there is the greatest reason for this, and for them to become fathers and enjoy the services of children, as it would be exceedingly inhuman to deprive them of every means of having any, because they are incapacitated from procreation. For as a person who is dumb can only express himself by signs, and he who has not power to speak can only convey his meaning by writing, so those who have no children, because they have been deprived of their generative organs, should not be forbidden to obtain them in some other way.