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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §23.3.39.pr-23.3.39.1

Conversion to Dowry after Manumission and Marriage with a Castrated Person

Passage 3413 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The text discusses how property given as a de facto dowry during slavery is converted into a dowry after manumission if the union continues, and whether a dowry can exist in a marriage with an impotent person (spado).

[IDEM libro trigesimo tertio ad edictum. ] §23.3.39.prSi serua seruo quasi dotem dederit, deinde constante coniunctione ad libertatem ambo peruenerint peculio eis non adempto et in eadem coniunctione permanserint, ita res moderetur, ut, si quae ex rebus corporalibus uelut in dotem tempore seruitutis datis exstiterint, uideantur ea tacite in dotem conuersa, ut earum aestimatio mulieri debeatur.
[THE SAME in the thirty-third book on the edict.] If a female slave has given something to a male slave as if as a dowry, and then, while their union continues, both have attained freedom without their peculium being taken away from them, and have remained in the same union, the matter should be so regulated that, if any of the corporeal things given as if as a dowry during the time of slavery still exist, they are deemed to have been tacitly converted into a dowry, so that the valuation of them is owed to the woman.
Si spadoni mulier nubserit, §23.3.39.1distinguendum arbitror, castratus fuerit necne, ut in castrato dicas dotem non esse: in eo qui castratus non est, quia est matrimonium, et dos et dotis actio est.
If a woman marries a spado, I think a distinction should be made as to whether he was castrated or not, so that in the case of a castrated person you would say there is no dowry; but in the case of one who is not castrated, since there is a marriage, both a dowry and an action for dowry exist.

Notes

  1. 23.3.39.prmoderetur — moderetur is the third-person singular present subjunctive passive, used impersonally to mean "it should be regulated/handled." The following ut clause (ut... uideantur) explains the content of this regulation.
  2. 23.3.39.prpeculio eis non adempto — An ablative absolute construction ("their peculium not being taken away from them"). It expresses the condition under which the slaves were manumitted: their peculium had to remain with them, which is a prerequisite for the subsequent tacit conversion of those assets into a dowry.
  3. 23.3.39.1spadoni — spado is a general term for an impotent person, which includes both those who have been castrated (castratus) and those who are impotent but not castrated (castratus non est). In Roman law, the former lacked the capacity to contract a valid marriage (hence no dowry), while the latter could marry, and thus a dowry could exist.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §23.3.39.pr-23.3.39.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:23.3.39.pr-23.3.39.1

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