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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §2.1.1.pr

Scope and Duties of a Magistrate Administering Justice

Passage 240 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian describes the extensive scope of the duty of a magistrate administering justice, giving examples such as granting possession of goods, appointing guardians, and assigning judges.

[ULPIANUS libro primo regularum. ] §2.1.1.prIus dicentis officium latissimum est: nam et bonorum possessionem dare potest et in possessionem mittere, pupillis non habentibus tutores constituere, iudices litigantibus dare.
[ULPIAN, Rules, Book One.] The duty of one who administers justice is extremely wide; for he can both grant the possession of goods and put into possession, appoint guardians for wards who do not have them, and assign judges to litigants.

Notes

  1. §2.1.1.prius dicentis — The genitive singular of the present participle from the phrase ius dicere (to administer justice), functioning substantively as 'the one administering justice' and serving as a possessive or subjective genitive modifying the subject officium.
  2. §2.1.1.prpotest — The auxiliary verb potest governs all four subsequent infinitive phrases: dare, mittere, constituere, and dare. The correlative conjunctions et...et... connect the first two infinitives, while the remaining infinitive phrases are appended in asyndeton.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §2.1.1.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:2.1.1.pr

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