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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §2.9.5.pr

Validity of Producing a Slave Manumitted After a Promise

Passage 323 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

If a slave is produced after becoming a free man despite a promise to produce him in the same condition, the production is invalid in cases of capital crimes or injuries, whereas in other noxal actions he is deemed to have reached a better legal condition.

[ULPIANUS libro quadragensimo septimo ad Sabinum. ] §2.9.5.prSi seruum in eadem causa sistere quidam promiserit et liber factus sistatur: si de ipso controuersia est capitalium actionum iniuriarumque nomine, non recte sistitur: quia aliter de seruo supplicium et uerberibus de iniuria satisfit, aliter de libero uindicta sumitur uel condemnatio pecuniaria.
[ULPIANUS, in the forty-seventh book on Sabinus.] If someone has promised to produce a slave in the same legal condition, and the slave is produced after having become a free man: if there is a dispute concerning him on the ground of capital actions or injuries, he is not properly produced; because satisfaction is made in one way regarding a slave by capital punishment and by scourging for injury, and in another way is punishment inflicted or a pecuniary condemnation pronounced regarding a free man.
quod autem ad ceteras noxales causas pertinet, etiam in meliorem causam uidetur peruenisse.
As for other noxal actions, however, he is even deemed to have arrived at a better condition.

Notes

  1. §2.9.5.prliber factus — The perfect participle factus (from fio, nominative masculine singular) functions predicatively, agreeing with the implied subject of the passive verb sistatur (the former slave who has become free).
  2. §2.9.5.praliter... aliter... — The repetition of the adverb aliter (in another way) contrasts the fundamental asymmetry between how penalties are executed on slaves (satisfit used impersonally) and how they are applied to free men (sumitur and condemnatio).
  3. §2.9.5.prquod ... pertinet — A restrictive relative clause constituting the idiomatic expression "as far as ... is concerned", where quod functions as a nominative neuter singular referring to the general matter.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §2.9.5.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:2.9.5.pr

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