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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §29.2.47.pr

Loss of Slave's Power to Accept by Master's Insanity

Passage 4450 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

If a master who ordered his instituted slave to accept an inheritance becomes insane before the acceptance, the slave cannot rightly accept it, because the master's will is lost.

[IDEM libro quarto quaestionum. ] §29.2.47.prQui seruum suum heredem institutum adire iusserat, priusquam ille adiret, furiosus est factus.
[THE SAME, in the fourth book of Questions.] A person who had ordered his slave, who had been instituted heir, to accept an inheritance, became insane before the slave accepted it.
negauit recte seruum aditurum, quoniam non nisi uoluntate domini adquiri hereditas potest, furiosi autem uoluntas nulla est.
He denied that the slave would rightly accept it, since an inheritance cannot be acquired except by the will of the master, and an insane person has no will.

Notes

  1. §29.2.47.prnegauit — The subject of this verb is not the subject of the preceding sentence (the master who became insane), but rather the jurist giving the legal opinion (the author Africanus, or Julian whom he follows). In Latin juristic writings, the subject of such response verbs is frequently omitted.
  2. §29.2.47.praditurum — This is a future active infinitive with 'esse' omitted, forming an accusative and infinitive construction with 'seruum' as its subject accusative, serving as the object of 'negauit'. Literally, 'he denied that the slave would accept', meaning 'he ruled that the slave could not accept'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §29.2.47.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:29.2.47.pr

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