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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §1.10.1.pr-1.10.1.2

Jurisdiction and Limits of Consuls in Manumissions

Passage 172 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section outlines the duties of the consul regarding manumission, specifically the provision of a council, the separate jurisdictions of individual consuls, and the restrictions on a consul under twenty years of age manumitting their own slaves.

[ULPIANUS libro secundo de officio consulis. ] §1.10.1.prOfficium consulis est consilium praebere manumittere uolentibus.
[ULPIAN, On the Office of Consul, book 2] It is the duty of the consul to provide a council to those who wish to manumit.
§1.10.1.1Consules et seorsum singuli manumittunt: sed non potest is, qui apud alterum nomina ediderit, apud alterum manumittere: separatae enim sunt manumissiones.
Consuls also manumit individually and separately; but a person who has registered names before one of them cannot manumit before the other, for the manumissions are separate.
sane si qua ex causa collega manumittere non poterit infirmitate uel aliqua iusta causa impeditus, collegam posse manumissionem expedire senatus censuit.
Indeed, the senate decreed that if for any reason a colleague is unable to manumit, being hindered by illness or some other just cause, the other colleague can expedite the manumission.
§1.10.1.2Consules apud se seruos suos manumittere posse nulla dubitatio est.
There is no doubt that consuls can manumit their own slaves before themselves.
sed si euenerit, ut minor uiginti annis consul sit, apud se manumittere non poterit, cum ipse sit, qui ex senatus consulto consilii causam examinat: apud collegam uero causa probata potest.
But if it happens that a consul is under twenty years of age, he cannot manumit before himself, since he himself is the one who, according to the senatusconsult, examines the cause before the council; however, he can do so before his colleague once the cause has been approved.

Notes

  1. 1.10.1.prconsilium praebere — Here consilium refers to the "council" (an advisory body established under laws like the Lex Aelia Sentia to examine the just cause of manumissions by owners under twenty), rather than abstract "advice." Therefore, consilium praebere means "to provide or convene a council."
  2. 1.10.1.1apud alterum nomina ediderit — nomina edere is a legal idiom meaning "to register or declare the names (of the slaves to be manumitted)." The phrase shows that once the registration has occurred before one consul (apud alterum), the process cannot be completed before the other consul.
  3. 1.10.1.2cum ipse sit, qui ex senatus consulto consilii causam examinat — The conjunction cum is causal ("since"). The genitive consilii can be construed with causam or as referring to the council before which the examination takes place. It explains why a consul under twenty cannot manumit before himself: doing so would make him both the examiner of the cause and the applicant, violating the principle against self-judgment.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §1.10.1.pr-1.10.1.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:1.10.1.pr-1.10.1.2

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