[ALFENUS libro secundo digestorum. ] §15.3.16.prQuidam fundum colendum seruo suo locauit et boues ei dederat: cum hi boues non essent idonei, iusserat eos uenire et his nummis qui recepti essent alios reparari: seruus boues uendiderat, alios redemerat, nummos uenditori non soluerat, postea conturbauerat: qui boues uendiderat nummos a domino petebat actione de peculio aut quod in rem domini uersum esset, cum boues pro quibus pecunia peteretur penes dominum essent.
[ALFENUS, Digests, book 2] A certain person leased a farm to his slave to be cultivated and had given him oxen; since these oxen were not suitable, he had ordered them to be sold and others to be procured with the money that should be received; the slave had sold the oxen, bought others, had not paid the money to the seller, and afterwards became insolvent. The person who had sold the oxen demanded the money from the master by the action on the peculium or for what had been turned to the account of the master, since the oxen for which the money was demanded were in the possession of the master.
respondit non uideri peculii quicquam esse, nisi si quid deducto eo, quod seruus domino debuisset, reliquum fieret: illud sibi uideri boues quidem in rem domini uersos esse, sed pro ea re soluisse tantum, quanti priores boues uenissent: si quo amplioris pecuniae posteriores boues essent, eius oportere dominum condemnari.
He answered that there did not seem to be any peculium, unless some balance should remain after deducting what the slave owed to the master; but it seemed to him that, while the oxen indeed had been turned to the account of the master, yet for that matter the master had paid only as much as the former oxen had been sold for; if the subsequent oxen were of any greater value, the master ought to be condemned for that amount.