- 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-lat1:6.1.25.pr
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-12
Ulpian explains that a non-possessor who defends a lawsuit without cause should not be acquitted if the plaintiff is ignorant of the fact, but specifies that this applies only after the joinder of issue (litis contestatio), distinguishing it from actions taken before the trial is accepted.
[ULPIANUS libro septuagensimo ad edictum.]
[ULPIAN, in the seventieth book on the Edict.]
Is qui se optulit rei defensioni sine causa, cum non possideret nec dolo fecisset, quo minus possideret:1 si actor ignoret, non est absoluendus,2 ut Marcellus ait: quae sententia uera est. sed hoc post litem contestatam: ceterum ante iudicium acceptum non decipit actorem qui se negat possidere, cum uere non possideret: nec uidetur se liti optulisse qui discessit.
A person who has presented himself to defend a thing without cause, when he was not in possession and had not acted with fraud to avoid possession, if the plaintiff is ignorant of this, is not to be absolved, as Marcellus says; and this opinion is correct. But this applies after the joinder of issue (litis contestatio); on the other hand, before the trial is accepted (iudicium acceptum), one who denies that he is in possession when he really is not does not deceive the plaintiff, nor is one who has withdrawn deemed to have presented himself for the lawsuit.
- 6.1.25.prquo minus possideret
This is a construction of quo minus with the subjunctive (imperfect possideret) dependent on fecisset (dolo fecisset), expressing an intention or result: "acting with fraud so as not to possess (or to avoid possession)".
- 6.1.25.prIs qui se optulit... non est absoluendus
The subject of the main clause Is (which governs the relative clause qui... and the concessive cum clause) is widely separated from its predicate verb phrase non est absoluendus by the conditional clause si actor ignoret and the parenthetical clause ut Marcellus ait.