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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §31.0.54.pr

Value of a Legacy of Land Conditioned on Paying Equivalent Price

Passage 4781 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It is argued that a legacy of land worth a certain value, on the condition of paying the same amount, is highly advantageous, because acquiring land (especially neighboring land) has personal value beyond its financial estimate.

[IDEM libro tertio decimo ad legem Iuliam et Papiam. ] §31.0.54.prSi cui fundus centum dignus legatus fuerit, si centum heredi uel cuilibet alii dederit, uberrimum uidetur esse legatum: nam alias interest legatarii fundum potius habere quam centum: saepe enim confines fundos etiam supra iustam aestimationem interest nostra adquirere.
[THE SAME in the thirteenth book on the Lex Iulia et Papia.] If a tract of land worth a hundred should be bequeathed to someone on the condition that he gives a hundred to the heir or to anyone else, this legacy seems to be highly advantageous; for otherwise it is in the interest of the legatee to have the land rather than a hundred, since it is often in our interest to acquire neighboring lands even above their fair valuation.

Notes

  1. 31.0.54.printerest legatarii ... interest nostra — The impersonal verb 'interest' takes the genitive of nouns (legatarii) to express whose interest is involved, but for personal pronouns (here, the first person plural) it takes the ablative feminine singular of the possessive pronoun (nostra). Both constructions are used distinctively in this single passage.
  2. 31.0.54.prcentum dignus — The adjective 'dignus' (worthy of) typically governs the ablative case. Although 'centum' is an indeclinable numeral here, it functions semantically as an ablative (representing a hundred aurei or sesterces).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §31.0.54.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:31.0.54.pr

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