- 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-lat1:5.2.5.pr
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-11
Marcellus explains the capacity of those not descended from males to bring a complaint against an undutiful testament, the meaning of the term 'inofficiosus', and how the case is argued before a judge using the pretext that the testator was of unsound mind.
[MARCELLUS libro tertio digestorum.]
[MARCELLUS, Digest, Book 3]
Nam et his, qui non ex masculis descendunt, facultas est agendi,1 cum et de matris testamento agant et optinere adsidue soleant. huius autem uerbi 'de inofficioso' uis illa ut dixi est docere immerentem se2 et ideo indigne praeteritum uel etiam exheredatione summotum: resque illo colore3 defenditur apud iudicem, ut uideatur ille quasi non sanae mentis4 fuisse, cum testamentum inique ordinaret.
For even those who do not descend from males have the capacity to sue, since they also bring actions concerning a mother’s testament and are constantly accustomed to prevail. Moreover, the force of this term ‘inofficiosus’, as I have said, is to show that one is undeserving [of such treatment] and has therefore been unworthily passed over or even excluded by disinheritance; and the case is defended before the judge under that pretext, so that the testator may appear to have been, as it were, of unsound mind when he unjustly drew up the testament.
- 5.2.5.prfacultas est agendi
agendi is the genitive of the gerund of agere (to bring an action, specifically the querela inofficiosi testamenti), modifying the noun facultas (capacity, power).
- 5.2.5.primmerentem se
This introduces an accusative and infinitive construction dependent on docere. se is the subject accusative, with which the adjective immerentem (undeserving, innocent) agrees. The infinitive esse is omitted after the participles praeteritum and summotum.
- 5.2.5.prillo colore
colore is the ablative of color (pretext, legal fiction), expressing means. It refers to the legal technique in Roman law where the plaintiff challenges a testament by using the fiction that the testator must have been of unsound mind (color insaniae) when making it.
- 5.2.5.prnon sanae mentis
A genitive of quality (genitive of description) serving as the complement of fuisse. It literally means 'of sound mind', negated by non to express 'of unsound mind'.