Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §21.1.11.pr

Missing Teeth or Toothlessness and Soundness of Body

Passage 3025 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus, citing Sabinus, argues that missing teeth or being toothless from birth until teeth emerge does not make a person diseased, pointing out that otherwise all elderly people would be deemed unhealthy.

[PAULUS libro undecimo ad Sabinum. ] §21.1.11.prCui dens abest, non est morbosus: magna enim pars hominum aliquo dente caret neque ideo morbosi sunt: praesertim cum sine dentibus nascimur nec ideo minus sani sumus donec dentes habeamus: alioquin nullus senex sanus esset.
[PAULUS in the eleventh book on Sabinus.] A person who is missing a tooth is not diseased; for a large part of mankind lacks some tooth, and they are not on that account diseased; especially since we are born without teeth and are not on that account less healthy until we have teeth; otherwise no old man would be healthy.

Notes

  1. §21.1.11.prCui dens abest — A relative clause acting as the subject with the antecedent (ei or is) omitted, where cui is a dative of possession ('to whom a tooth is missing'), meaning 'He who lacks a tooth.'
  2. §21.1.11.prmagna enim pars hominum aliquo dente caret neque ideo morbosi sunt — Although the subject magna pars ('a great part') is grammatically singular, the subsequent verb sunt and adjective morbosi are in the plural, agreeing in sense with the plural genitive hominum (agreement according to sense, or synesis).
  3. §21.1.11.prnullus senex sanus esset — A contrary-to-fact (present) apodosis with the imperfect subjunctive esset, where the adverb alioquin ('otherwise') functions in place of a conditional protasis ('if being toothless made one diseased').

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §21.1.11.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:21.1.11.pr

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