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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §29.1.6.pr

Soldiers Naming Heirs for Specific Property and Partial Intestacy

Passage 4365 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

If a soldier designates an heir for a specific estate, the remaining property is treated as intestate, demonstrating the military privilege to die partly testate and partly intestate.

[IDEM libro quinto ad Sabinum. ] §29.1.6.prSi miles unum ex fundo heredem scripserit, creditum quantum ad residuum patrimonium intestatus decessisset: miles enim pro parte testatus potest decedere, pro parte intestatus.
[THE SAME in his fifth book on Sabinus.] If a soldier has designated one person as heir to a particular estate, it is believed that, as regards the remainder of his property, he died intestate; for a soldier can die partly testate and partly intestate.

Notes

  1. §29.1.6.prex fundo — meaning 'from a specific estate' or land. This refers to the designation of an heir to a specific property (institutio ex re certa). In ordinary Roman law, due to the rule against dying partly testate and partly intestate, such a person would be deemed heir to the entire estate. However, by military privilege, a soldier can limit an heir's entitlement to that specific property alone.
  2. §29.1.6.prcreditum ... decessisset — creditum is an ellipse of the impersonal passive creditum [est] ('it is believed' or 'deemed'). The use of the pluperfect subjunctive decessisset in the dependent clause expresses a fictional or hypothetical past state of affairs ('he is to be deemed to have died').

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §29.1.6.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:29.1.6.pr

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