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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §22.3.28.pr

Standard of Proof for the Memory of a Work

Passage 3246 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

While Labeo defines the existence of memory of a work as whether anyone remembers it being done, Paulus corrects this by arguing that it is sufficient to prove the approximate time in some way, rather than requiring anyone to remember the exact date or consul.

[LABEO libro septimo pithanon a Paulo epitomatorum. ] §22.3.28.prSi arbiter animaduertere debeat, an operis facti memoria exstet, hoc ei quaerendum est, an aliquis meminerit id opus factum esse.
[From the seventh book of Labeo's Probabilities, epitomized by Paulus.] If an arbiter must determine whether memory of a work having been done exists, he must inquire into this: whether anyone remembers that the work was done.
PAULUS: immo cum in arbitrio quaeritur, memoria facti operis exstet nec ne, non hoc quaeritur, num aliquis meminerit, quo die aut quo consule factum sit, sed num hoc aliquo modo probari possit, quando id opus factum sit: et hoc ita, quod Graece dici solet ἐν πλάτει.
PAULUS: On the contrary, when it is inquired in an arbitration whether or not memory of a work having been done exists, what is inquired is not whether anyone remembers on what day or under which consul it was done, but whether it can be proved in some way when that work was done; and this is so in the manner of what is commonly called in Greek ἐν πλάτει.
enim potest hoc memoria non teneri: intra annum puta factum, cum interim nemo sit eorum, qui meminerit, quibus consulibus id uiderit, sed cum omnium haec est opinio nec audisse nec uidisse, cum id opus fieret, neque ex eis audisse, qui uidissent aut audissent: et hoc infinite similiter susum uersum accidet, cum memoria operis facti non exstaret.
For it is possible that this is not held in memory: suppose, for example, it was done within a year, while in the meantime there is no one among those who remembers under which consuls he saw it; but rather when the opinion of all is that they have neither heard nor seen when the work was being done, nor heard of it from those who had seen or heard of it. And this will happen similarly, going backwards infinitely, when the memory of the work having been done does not exist.

Notes

  1. 22.3.28.prἐν πλάτει — Meaning "broadly" or "with a certain latitude" in Greek. It refers to Paulus's flexible standard that it is sufficient to prove "when" the work was done within a certain range of time, rather than requiring the exact date or the specific consul's name.
  2. 22.3.28.prputa — The present active imperative singular of the verb putare ("to think" or "suppose"), used here parenthetically as an adverb meaning "for instance" or "suppose."
  3. 22.3.28.prsusum uersum — An alternative spelling of sursum versum ("upwards" or "turning upwards"). Here it means tracing back in time or generations into the past, referring to a situation where the lack of memory of the work's construction extends infinitely backward through preceding generations.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §22.3.28.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:22.3.28.pr

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