Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §11.1.8.pr

Aquilian Liability Incurred by Claiming Ownership of a Slave

Passage 1754 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Anyone who answers that a slave who caused damage is theirs is held liable under the Aquilian law as if they were the owner, which in turn releases the true owner from liability.

[PAULUS libro uicensimo secundo ad edictum. ] §11.1.8.prSi quis interrogatus de seruo qui damnum dedit, respondit suum esse seruum, tenebitur lege Aquilia quasi dominus et, si cum eo actum sit qui respondit, dominus ea actione liberatur.
[PAULUS, from the twenty-second book on the Edict.] If anyone, being interrogated concerning a slave who caused damage, answers that the slave is his, he will be held liable under the Aquilian law as if he were the owner; and, if an action is brought against him who answered, the owner is released from that action.

Notes

  1. §11.1.8.prsuum esse seruum — An accusative-with-infinitive (A.C.I.) construction acting as the object of respondit. The reflexive possessive adjective suum refers back to the subject of the main clause (quis), meaning 'that the slave was his own'.
  2. §11.1.8.prcum eo actum sit — The impersonal passive of the technical legal expression cum aliquo agere ('to bring an action against someone'). The perfect subjunctive actum sit is used in the conditional clause, meaning 'if an action should be brought against him'.
  3. §11.1.8.prdominus — In this context, it refers to the 'true owner' (uerus dominus) as opposed to the person who answered falsely (quasi dominus).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §11.1.8.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:11.1.8.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.