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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §25.3.7.pr

Provisional Child Support during Disputed Marriage

Passage 3713 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Even if the existence of a marriage is disputed due to the alleged slave status of the wife, the husband must provisionally support the children, and I answered that this support creates no prejudice against him if she is later proven to be a slave.

[IDEM libro quinto responsorum. ] §25.3.7.prSi neget qui maritus fuisse dicitur matrimonium esse contractum eo, quod eam quae se uxorem fuisse dicit ancillam esse probare paratus sit, alimenta quidem liberis praestare interim compellendum, sin autem constiterit eam seruam fuisse, nihil ei, qui pascendos curauit, ex hoc praeiudicium generare respondi.
[THE SAME, from the fifth book of Opinions.] If he who is said to have been the husband denies that a marriage was contracted, on the ground that he is prepared to prove that she who says she was his wife is a slave, I answered that he must indeed in the meantime be compelled to provide maintenance for the children; but if it is established that she was a slave, this fact creates no prejudice to him who took care to feed them.

Notes

  1. §25.3.7.preo, quod — A correlative construction where the ablative of cause 'eo' is explained by the following 'quod' clause (with the subjunctive 'paratus sit'), meaning 'on the ground that' or 'for the reason that'.
  2. §25.3.7.prcompellendum — Part of the indirect speech (accusative and infinitive construction) governed by the main verb 'respondi'. It is a gerundive with the omission of its accusative subject (eum, referring to the husband) and the infinitive 'esse', expressing a provisional obligation ('that he must be compelled').
  3. §25.3.7.prpascendos curauit — The verb 'curo' (to take care of) combined with the accusative gerundive 'pascendos' (to be fed), meaning 'he who took care to feed (them)' or 'he who undertook the duty of maintaining (them)'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §25.3.7.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:25.3.7.pr

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