- Source
- Digesta Iustiniani Augusti. Mommsen, Theodor & Krueger, Paul, editors. Berlin: Weidmann, 1870.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:3.5.38.pr
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-07
This text explains that paying on behalf of another is valid even without their consent, whereas one cannot legally demand what is owed to another without their will, based on the principle that we can improve another's legal condition but cannot worsen it.
[GAIUS libro tertio de uerborum obligationibus.]
[GAIUS, On Verbal Obligations, Book III]
Soluendo quisque pro alio licet inuito et ignorante1 liberat eum: quod autem alicui debetur, alius sine uoluntate eius non potest iure exigere. naturalis enim simul et ciuilis ratio suasit alienam condicionem meliorem quidem etiam ignorantis et inuiti2 nos facere posse, deteriorem non posse.
Anyone, by paying on behalf of another, even if that person is unwilling and ignorant, releases him; however, what is owed to someone, another cannot legally demand without his consent. For both natural and civil reason have suggested that we can indeed make another’s condition better, even if he is ignorant and unwilling, but we cannot make it worse.
- 3.5.38.prlicet inuito et ignorante
Although licet is originally an impersonal verb meaning 'it is permitted,' here it functions as a concessive conjunction ('although,' 'even if'), directly modifying the adjective inuito and the participle ignorante (both ablatives agreeing with alio) without forming a clause with a subjunctive verb.
- 3.5.38.pralienam condicionem ... etiam ignorantis et inuiti
Since the possessive adjective alienam ('another's') semantically functions as a noun ('of another person'), the genitive singular modifiers ignorantis et inuiti ('of one who is ignorant and unwilling') are placed in apposition to the possessive sense of alienam. This is a classical Latin construction where a genitive is used to limit or define a possessive adjective.