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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §23.2.42.pr-23.2.42.1

Decency in Marriage and Invalid Senatorial Unions

Passage 3348 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Modestinus asserts the principle that both legality and moral honor must be considered in marriage, and states that a marriage between a female descendant of a senator and a freedman or a person associated with the theater is invalid.

[MODESTINUS libro singulari de ritu nuptiarum. ] §23.2.42.prSemper in coniunctionibus non solum quid liceat considerandum est, sed et quid honestum sit.
[MODESTINUS, in his single book on the Rite of Nuptials.] In marriages, not only what is lawful must always be considered, but also what is honorable.
§23.2.42.1Si senatoris filia neptis proneptis libertino uel qui artem ludicram exercuit cuiusue pater materue id fecerit, nupserit, nuptiae non erunt.
If the daughter, granddaughter, or great-daughter of a senator should marry a freedman, or one who has practiced the theatrical art, or whose father or mother has done so, there will be no marriage.

Notes

  1. 23.2.42.prnon solum quid liceat ... sed et quid honestum sit — A contrast between quid liceat (what is legally permitted) and quid honestum sit (what is morally or socially honorable). This is a famous legal maxim illustrating that Roman law recognizes a standard of moral decency and social respectability distinct from mere legal permission.
  2. 23.2.42.1libertino uel qui artem ludicram exercuit cuiusue pater materue id fecerit, nupserit — The intransitive verb nupserit (from nubere, 'to marry', used of a woman) governs the dative case, hence the noun libertino is in the dative. The subsequent relative clauses introduced by qui and cuiusue function with the omitted antecedent ei as coordinated dative objects of nupserit. The pronoun id refers back to artem ludicram exercere.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §23.2.42.pr-23.2.42.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:23.2.42.pr-23.2.42.1

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