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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §1.7.28.pr

Discretion of the Head of Household to Emancipate Descendants

Passage 130 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text discusses the head of a household's free choice to determine which descendants (son and grandson) to release from or retain under his power, or to make them all independent, noting that the same applies to a great-grandson.

[GAIUS libro primo institutionum. ] §1.7.28.prLiberum arbitrium est ei, qui filium et ex eo nepotem in potestate habebit, filium quidem potestate demittere, nepotem uero in potestate retinere: uel ex diuerso filium quidem in potestate retinere, nepotem uero manumittere: uel omnes sui iuris efficere.
[GAIUS, Institutes, book 1.] A person who will have in his power a son and a grandson born of him has the free choice either to release the son from his power and retain the grandson in his power; or, conversely, to retain the son in his power and manumit the grandson; or to make them all independent.
eadem et de pronepote dicta esse intellegemus.
We shall understand that the same things are also said concerning a great-grandson.

Notes

  1. §1.7.28.prLiberum arbitrium est ei... demittere... retinere... efficere — The infinitive clauses (demittere, retinere, efficere) function as appositives explaining the content of 'liberum arbitrium' (free choice) or as subjects of 'est ei' (he has). Three alternatives are coordinated by the conjunction 'uel': releasing the son and retaining the grandson, retaining the son and releasing the grandson, or making them all independent (sui iuris).
  2. §1.7.28.prdicta esse — Part of the accusative and infinitive (A.C.I.) construction governed by 'intellegemus' (we shall understand). The neuter plural accusative 'eadem' (the same things) is the subject accusative, and 'dicta esse' is the perfect passive infinitive, meaning 'we shall understand that the same things have been said'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §1.7.28.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:1.7.28.pr

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