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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §1.18.12.pr

Standards of Office of the Governor: Duty Over Precedent

Passage 214 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It argues that although a provincial governor must act in the place of all Roman magistrates, the standard for their actions should not be what has actually been done in Rome, but what ought to be done.

[PROCULUS libro quarto epistularum. ] §1.18.12.prSed licet is, qui prouinciae praeest, omnium Romae magistratuum uice et officio fungi debeat, non tamen spectandum est quid Romae factum est, quam quid fieri debeat.
[PROCULUS, in the fourth book of Epistles.] But although he who is in charge of a province ought to perform the role and office of all magistrates in Rome, yet one must not look at what has been done in Rome so much as what ought to be done.

Notes

  1. §1.18.12.prlicet ... debeat — The conjunction licet takes the subjunctive (here debeat) to introduce a concessive clause ('although...').
  2. §1.18.12.pruice et officio fungi — The verb fungi governs the ablative case; here, uice (ablative of uicis, meaning 'turn', 'office', or 'place') and officio function as its objects. omnium Romae magistratuum is a genitive modifying uice et officio.
  3. §1.18.12.prnon tamen spectandum est quid Romae factum est, quam quid fieri debeat — spectandum est is an impersonal gerundive expressing obligation or necessity. The construction non ... quam ... is a comparison with the omission of tam (non tam ... quam ...), meaning 'not so much... as...'. In the indirect question, the indicative factum est is used instead of the subjunctive to emphasize the actual, historical occurrence of the facts in Rome, in contrast to the subjunctive fieri debeat.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §1.18.12.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:1.18.12.pr

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