- 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-lat1:5.2.2.pr
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-11
Marcianus explains that an action against an undutiful will is brought under the pretext of unsound mind, which denotes a failure of moral duty rather than actual insanity, as the latter would make the will altogether void.
[MARCIANUS libro quarto institutionum.]
[MARCIANUS in the fourth book of the Institutes.]
Hoc colore1 inofficioso testamento agitur, quasi non sanae mentis2 fuerunt, ut testamentum ordinarent. et hoc dicitur non quasi uere furiosus uel demens testatus sit, sed recte3 quidem fecit testamentum, sed non ex officio pietatis: nam si uere furiosus esset uel demens, nullum est testamentum.
Under this pretext, an action is brought against an undutiful will, as if they were not of sound mind when they drew up the will. And this is said, not as if a truly insane or demented person had made the will, but that he did indeed make the will in a regular manner, yet not in accordance with the duty of natural affection; for if he were truly insane or demented, the will is null.
- 5.2.2.prcolore
In legal and rhetorical terminology, it refers to a "pretext" or "legal fiction." Here, it denotes the legal fiction employed to bring a complaint against an undutiful will, pretending that the testator was not of sound mind despite being legally sane.
- 5.2.2.prnon sanae mentis
A genitive of quality (genitivus qualitatis) used with the verb fuerunt to denote the state of "not being of sound mind."
- 5.2.2.prrecte
It means that the will was drawn up "correctly" in a formal and legal sense, which is contrasted with officium pietatis (the moral duty of natural affection towards close relatives).