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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §1.18.13.pr-1.18.13.1

Maintenance of Peace and Legal Measures for Insane Criminals

Passage 215 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This chunk discusses the provincial governor's primary duties of maintaining peace and suppressing various criminals and their harborers, as well as the specific legal handling and investigation of insane persons or those feigning madness.

[ULPIANUS libro septimo de officio proconsulis. ] §1.18.13.prCongruit bono et graui praesidi curare, ut pacata atque quieta prouincia sit quam regit.
[ULPIAN, in the seventh book on the Office of Proconsul.] It is suitable for a good and grave governor to take care that the province which he rules is peaceful and quiet.
quod non difficile obtinebit, si sollicite agat, ut malis hominibus prouincia careat eosque conquirat: nam et sacrilegos latrones plagiarios fures conquirere debet et prout quisque deliquerit, in eum animaduertere, receptoresque eorum coercere, sine quibus latro diutius latere non potest.
He will achieve this without difficulty if he acts diligently to ensure that the province is free of bad men and to search them out; for he ought to search out temple-robbers, robbers, kidnappers, and thieves, and to punish each according to his offense, and to restrain their harborers, without whom a robber cannot remain hidden for any length of time.
§1.18.13.1Furiosis, si non possint per necessarios contineri, eo remedio per praesidem obuiam eundum est: scilicet ut carcere contineantur.
In the case of insane persons, if they cannot be restrained by their relatives, a remedy must be applied by the governor, namely, that they be confined in prison.
et ita diuus Pius rescripsit.
And the divine Pius wrote a rescript to this effect.
sane excutiendum diui fratres putauerunt in persona eius, qui parricidium admiserat, utrum simulato furore facinus admississet an uero re uera compos mentis non esset, ut si simulasset, plecteretur, si fureret, in carcere contineretur.
Indeed, the divine brothers thought that it must be investigated in the person of one who had committed parricide, whether he had committed the crime with feigned madness, or whether in truth he was not of sound mind, so that if he had feigned it, he should be punished, and if he were mad, he should be confined in prison.

Notes

  1. 1.18.13.prquod — The relative pronoun quod at the beginning of the clause is a connecting relative referring to the contents of the preceding clause (maintaining the peace and quiet of the province) and serves as the direct object (accusative) of obtinebit.
  2. 1.18.13.1Furiosis... obuiam eundum est — obuiam eundum est is an impersonal passive (gerundive construction) governing the dative furiosis, meaning 'one must go to meet/deal with insane persons.' The agent of this action is expressed by the prepositional phrase per praesidem (by the governor).
  3. 1.18.13.1excutiendum — The gerundive of necessity excutiendum stands for excutiendum esse with the omitted infinitive esse, functioning as the infinitive in the accusative-and-infinitive construction governed by the main verb putauerunt. The logical subject of this phrase is the entire subsequent indirect question clause introduced by utrum... an uero...

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §1.18.13.pr-1.18.13.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:1.18.13.pr-1.18.13.1

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