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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §1.9.9.pr

Father's Expulsion and Daughter's Marriage to a Freedman

Passage 168 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Papinianus states that if a senator's daughter marries a freedman, her father's subsequent expulsion from the senate does not validate the marriage, since children do not lose their acquired status due to their father's downfall.

[PAPINIANUS libro quarto responsorum. ] §1.9.9.prFiliam senatoris nuptias liberti secutam patris casus non facit uxorem: nam quaesita dignitas liberis propter casum patris remoti a senatu auferenda non est.
[PAPINIANUS, Opinions, book 4] The downfall of her father does not make a senator's daughter, who has contracted a marriage with a freedman, his wife; for a dignity once acquired ought not to be taken away from children on account of the downfall of a father who has been removed from the senate.

Notes

  1. 1.9.9.prnuptias liberti secutam — Literally 'having followed the marriage of a freedman', this phrase means 'having contracted a marriage with a freedman'. The perfect participle `secutam` (from the deponent verb `sequor`) modifies `filiam`.
  2. 1.9.9.prnon facit uxorem — The verb `facit` governs a double accusative construction with the direct object `filiam` and the predicate accusative `uxorem` ('does not make her his wife'). This means that the legally void marriage between a senator's daughter and a freedman is not validated by her father's subsequent loss of status (casus).
  3. 1.9.9.prliberis... auferenda non est — The dative `liberis` is not a dative of agent with the gerundive `auferenda`, but rather a dative of separation commonly used with the verb of taking away (`auferre`). It translates to 'ought not to be taken away from the children'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §1.9.9.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:1.9.9.pr

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