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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §29.2.50.pr

Tutor's Death Before Acceptance and Pupil's Inheritance

Passage 4453 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section explains that if a tutor orders a pupil's slave by letter to accept an inheritance but dies before the slave does so, the pupil is not bound by the inheritance.

[MODESTINUS libro singulari de heurematicis. ] §29.2.50.prSi per epistulam seruo pupilli tutor hereditatem adire iusserit, si post subscriptam epistulam tutor moriatur, antequam ex epistula seruus adiret, nemo dicturus est obligari postea pupillum hereditati.
[MODESTINUS, in the single book on Inventions.] If a tutor, by letter, should order a slave of his pupil to enter upon an inheritance, and if, after the letter has been signed, the tutor should die before the slave enters upon it in accordance with the letter, no one will say that the pupil is afterwards bound to the inheritance.

Notes

  1. §29.2.50.prseruo — The verb iubeo typically governs an accusative with infinitive construction (which would require seruum) in classical Latin, but here the dative seruo is used. This construction may be influenced by other verbs of commanding that take the dative (such as imperare), a usage found more frequently in post-classical and legal Latin.
  2. §29.2.50.prpost subscriptam epistulam — A prepositional phrase using post followed by a noun (epistulam) and a perfect participle (subscriptam), in an 'ab urbe condita' construction (dominant participle). Rather than 'after the signed letter', it means 'after the signing of the letter' or 'after the letter has been signed'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §29.2.50.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:29.2.50.pr

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