[CELSUS libro nono decimo digestorum. ] §23.3.58.prSi sponsalibus nondum factis Titio dotem Seiae nomine promiseris, cum ea nubere ei nollet, tamen, si postea nupserit, dotem debebis, nisi aliae nuptiae mediae interuenissent.
[CELSUS in the nineteenth book of the Digests.] If, before betrothal had yet taken place, you promised a dowry to Titius on behalf of Seia, even though she was unwilling to marry him at the time, nevertheless, if she later marries him, you will owe the dowry, unless another marriage had intervened in the meantime.
§23.3.58.1Si mulier ancillam Pamphilam a Titio stipulata, deinde ei nuptura quod is sibi debebat doti habere permisit, etiamsi non erit uiri Pamphila, an ipsa tamen Pamphila in dote et mulieris periculo erit? an et quod ea pepererit, reddi mulieri debebit? quia si in sua causa prior stipulatio mansisset, non redderetur.
If a woman, having stipulated for the slave-girl Pamphila from Titius, and being about to marry him thereafter, permitted him to hold as dowry what he owed to her, even if Pamphila does not become the husband's, will Pamphila herself nevertheless be in the dowry and at the risk of the woman? And will that which she has brought forth also have to be restored to the woman? For if the prior stipulation had remained in its own state, it would not be restored.
nisi forte refert, habuerit rem quam debebat uir, quo tempore dos constituebatur: nam ita poterit uideri res ipsa ad eum peruenisse: an non habuerit: nam si non habuerit, magis est, ut liberatio obligationis potius quam res ipsa ad eum ita peruenisse uideatur ideoque partus eius non debetur.
Unless perhaps it makes a difference whether the husband possessed the thing which he owed at the time when the dowry was constituted, or did not possess it; for if he possessed it, the thing itself can be seen to have come to him; but if he did not possess it, it is more likely that the release from the obligation, rather than the thing itself, is seen to have come to him in this way, and therefore her offspring is not owed.