Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §1.5.22.pr

Status of a Child Born at the Mother's Manumission Date

Passage 86 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Modestinus states that if a female slave gives birth at the time she was supposed to be manumitted under a donation agreement, the child is born free, as she herself had already automatically obtained freedom by virtue of an imperial constitution.

[IDEM libro duodecimo responsorum. ] §1.5.22.prHerennius Modestinus respondit, si eo tempore enixa est ancilla, quo secundum legem donationis manumissa esse debuit, cum ex constitutione libera fuerit, ingenuum ex ea natum.
[BY THE SAME, in the twelfth book of Opinions.] Herennius Modestinus replied that, if a female slave gave birth at the time when she ought to have been manumitted according to the condition of the donation, since she had become free under the imperial constitution, the child born of her was freeborn.

Notes

  1. §1.5.22.pringenuum ex ea natum — An accusative with infinitive construction with the ellipse of the copula `esse` (i.e., `natum esse`). `ingenuum` is a predicate adjective used substantively ('freeborn'), indicating that the child born of a mother who is already free at the time of birth is classified as freeborn (ingenuus), not a freedman (libertinus).
  2. §1.5.22.prcum ex constitutione libera fuerit — A `cum` clause with the subjunctive perfect `fuerit`, expressing cause or circumstance. Under the imperial constitution of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, if a slave was gifted or bequeathed under the condition of being manumitted by a certain date, and was not manumitted, she became free automatically (ipso iure). Thus, she was already legally free when she gave birth, even without a formal act of manumission.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §1.5.22.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:1.5.22.pr

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.