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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §1.5.18.pr

Status of Children Born to Condemned Women

Passage 82 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The text discusses Emperor Hadrian's rescript concerning the free status of a child born to a free woman condemned to death while pregnant, and the citizenship and paternal power of a child born to a woman interdicted from water and fire after conceiving in lawful wedlock.

[IDEM libro uicensimo septimo ad Sabinum. ] §1.5.18.prImperator Hadrianus Publicio Marcello rescripsit liberam, quae praegnas ultimo supplicio damnata est, liberum parere et solitum esse seruari eam, dum partum ederet.
[THE SAME, in the twenty-seventh book on Sabinus.] Emperor Hadrian wrote in a rescript to Publicius Marcellus that a free woman who, while pregnant, was condemned to the extreme penalty, brings forth a free child, and that it has been the custom for her to be preserved until she should give birth.
sed si ei, quae ex iustis nuptiis concepit, aqua et igni interdictum est, ciuem Romanum parit et in potestate patris.
But if a woman who conceived in lawful wedlock is interdicted from water and fire, she brings forth a Roman citizen, and the child is under the power of the father.

Notes

  1. §1.5.18.prliberam ... liberum — Substantive uses of the feminine accusative and neuter (or masculine) accusative singular adjectives. liberam refers to a "free woman" (mulierem) acting as the subject of the accusative-with-infinitive (AcI) construction following rescripsit, while liberum refers to a "free child" (infantem or partum) acting as the direct object of the infinitive parere.
  2. §1.5.18.prsolitum esse — Infinitive of the impersonal expression solitum est ("it is customary"). It forms part of the accusative-with-infinitive (AcI) construction governed by the main verb rescripsit, with the entire clause eam seruari ("that she be preserved") serving as its subject.
  3. §1.5.18.prei ... aqua et igni interdictum est — Impersonal passive construction of the verb interdicere ("to forbid"). The person forbidden is put in the dative case (ei), and the things forbidden (water and fire) are in the ablative case (aqua et igni). It literally means "water and fire were forbidden to her," which signifies the loss of Roman citizenship and banishment.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §1.5.18.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:1.5.18.pr

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