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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §23.2.41.pr-23.2.41.1

Secret Prostitution, Infamy, and Dignity of a Mater Familias

Passage 3347 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Marcellus discusses that shameful conduct is considered to exist in women who practice prostitution even privately, and that a woman living in concubinage with someone other than her patron lacks the dignity of a mater familias.

[MARCELLUS libro uicesimo sexto digestorum. ] §23.2.41.prProbrum intellegitur etiam in his mulieribus esse, quae turpiter uiuerent uolgoque quaestum facerent, etiamsi non palam.
[MARCELLUS, in the twenty-sixth book of the Digests.] Shameful conduct is understood to exist also in those women who live basely and make a living by prostitution, even if not openly.
§23.2.41.1Et si qua se in concubinatu alterius quam patroni tradidisset, matris familias honestatem non habuisse dico.
And if any woman has given herself into concubinage with someone other than her patron, I say that she did not possess the respectability of a mother of a family.

Notes

  1. 23.2.41.prProbrum intellegitur ... esse — The noun 'probrum' (shameful conduct/disgrace) with the infinitive 'esse' forms an accusative-and-infinitive (or nominative-and-infinitive) clause acting as the subject of the passive verb 'intellegitur'. It is best translated as 'disgrace is understood to exist'.
  2. 23.2.41.prquaestum facerent — Although 'quaestum facere' generally means 'to make a profit or living', in this context it is a euphemism for practicing prostitution.
  3. 23.2.41.1si qua — A shortened form of 'si aliqua'. 'aliqua' is a feminine singular nominative indefinite pronoun, meaning 'if any woman'.
  4. 23.2.41.1honestatem non habuisse dico — The main verb 'dico' (I say) governs an accusative-and-infinitive construction. The logical subject of the infinitive 'habuisse' (such as 'eam') is omitted because it is easily supplied from the subject of the conditional clause, 'qua'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §23.2.41.pr-23.2.41.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:23.2.41.pr-23.2.41.1

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