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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §29.1.31.pr

Manumission by One Co-legatee and Renunciation by the Other

Passage 4390 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Marcellus argues that if a soldier bequeaths a slave to two persons and one manumits the slave while the other is deliberating, and the latter subsequently rejects the legacy, the slave becomes free, drawing an analogy to a similar case involving an heir.

[MARCELLUS libro tertio decimo digestorum. ] §29.1.31.prSi miles Titio et Seio seruum legauerit et eum Titius manumississet deliberante Seio moxque is legatum omisisset, liberandum fore dico, quia et si heres seruum alicui legatum interim manumisisset, deinde legatarius repudiasset, liber esset.
[MARCELLUS, in his thirteenth book of the Digests.] If a soldier should bequeath a slave to Titius and Seius, and Titius should manumit him while Seius is deliberating, and soon afterwards the latter should reject the legacy, I say that the slave will have to be set free; because even if an heir, in the meantime, should manumit a slave bequeathed to someone, and then the legatee should reject the legacy, the slave would be free.

Notes

  1. §29.1.31.prliberandum fore — An accusative with infinitive clause functioning as the object of 'dico'. The combination of the gerundive 'liberandum' (with 'seruum' understood as the subject) and 'fore' (equivalent to 'futurum esse') expresses a future passive result (that he will have to be set free / will become free).
  2. §29.1.31.prdeliberante Seio — An ablative absolute with the present participle 'deliberante'. It functions as a temporal or circumstantial adverbial phrase indicating the period during which the co-legatee Seius is considering whether to accept or reject the legacy.
  3. §29.1.31.pret si — Here used in a concessive sense ('even if', equivalent to 'etiam si'). It introduces a general analogical case where an heir in the meantime manumits a bequeathed slave and the legatee subsequently rejects the legacy, justifying the decision in the soldier's case.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §29.1.31.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:29.1.31.pr

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