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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §29.6.3.pr

Persuading a Wife against Altering Her Will and Rights

Passage 4576 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Papinianus replies that a husband who, without force or fraud but through normal marital persuasion, appeased his sick wife's anger and thus prevented her from changing her will, committed no crime and retains his testamentary gifts.

[PAPINIANUS libro quinto decimo responsorum. ] §29.6.3.prUirum, qui non per uim nec dolum, quo minus uxor, contra eum mutata uoluntate, codicillos faceret, intercesserat, sed ut fieri adsolet, offensam aegrae mulieris maritali sermone placauerat, in crimen non incidisse respondi, nec ei quod testamento fuerat datum auferendum.
[PAPINIANUS in his fifteenth book of Opinions.] I replied that a husband who had intervened, not by force or fraud, to prevent his wife from making a codicil after having changed her mind against him, but who, as is accustomed to happen, had appeased the resentment of the sick woman by marital conversation, did not commit a crime, nor should what had been given to him by the will be taken away.

Notes

  1. §29.6.3.prUirum ... in crimen non incidisse ... nec ... auferendum — An accusative-with-infinitive construction (indirect speech) governed by the main verb respondi. The subject accusative uirum is modified by a long relative clause starting with qui and ending with placauerat, which controls the infinitives incidisse and auferendum [esse]. Identifying this overarching syntactic framework is crucial for understanding the sentence.
  2. §29.6.3.prquo minus — Introduces a clause of prevention or hindrance with the subjunctive faceret, dependent on the verb of hindering/intervening intercesserat, meaning 'to prevent (the wife) from making...'. This is often written as a single word, quominus.
  3. §29.6.3.prei — A dative of separation (dativus separationis) used with the verb of taking away auferendum (aufero), meaning 'from him'. In Latin, personal pronouns in the dative case regularly express the person from whom something is taken.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §29.6.3.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:29.6.3.pr

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