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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §3.2.21.pr

Absence of Infamy for Witnesses of Rejected Testimony

Passage 479 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

In response to a query on whether witnesses whose written testimony was rejected in a trial should be classified as infamous for false testimony, Paulus responds in the negative, asserting that no one should be prejudiced by a judgment rendered against another.

[PAULUS libro secundo responsorum. ] §3.2.21.prLucius Titius crimen intendit Gaio Seio quasi iniuriam passus atque in eam rem testationem apud praefectum praetorio recitauit: praefectus fide non habita testationis nullam iniuriam Lucium Titium passum esse a Gaio Seio pronuntiauit.
[PAULUS, in his Second Book of Responses.] Lucius Titius brought a charge against Gaius Seius as if he had suffered an injury, and read a deposition on that matter before the praetorian prefect. The prefect, having no faith in the deposition, pronounced that Lucius Titius had suffered no injury from Gaius Seius.
quaero, an testes, quorum testimonium reprobatum est, quasi ex falso testimonio inter infames habentur.
I ask whether the witnesses, whose testimony was rejected, are to be held among the infamous as if on account of false testimony.
Paulus respondit nihil proponi, cur hi, de quibus quae-ritur, infamium loco haberi debeant, cum non oportet ex sententia siue iusta siue iniusta pro alio habita alium praegrauari.
Paulus responded that nothing was presented why those about whom the inquiry is made should be held in the place of the infamous, since it is not proper that one person should be prejudiced by a judgment, whether just or unjust, rendered in regard to another.

Notes

  1. §3.2.21.prtestationis — Genitive singular of the noun testatio. It functions as an objective genitive modifying the noun fide in the ablative absolute construction fide non habita, meaning 'faith in the deposition (not being had)'. While the active expression fidem habere typically governs the dative, here it takes a noun-modifying genitive relation.
  2. §3.2.21.prpro alio habita — The perfect participle habita (ablative, feminine, singular), agreeing with sententia, is accompanied by the prepositional phrase pro alio (for another, concerning another). Based on the idiomatic expression sententiam habere (to render a judgment), it refers to 'a judgment rendered in regard to another (i.e., the principal party)', which stands in contrast with alium (another person, i.e., the third-party witness) as the subject of the infinitive in the main clause.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §3.2.21.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:3.2.21.pr

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