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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §32.0.23.pr

Incomplete Wills and the Emperor's Duty to Obey the Law

Passage 4844 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus states that it is unbecoming of the emperor's majesty to claim legacies under an incomplete will, and that the emperor ought to observe the laws from which he is exempt.

[PAULUS libro quinto sententiarum. ] §32.0.23.prEx imperfecto testamento legata uel fideicommissa imperatorem uindicare inuerecundum est: decet enim tantae maiestati eas seruare leges, quibus ipse solutus esse uidetur.
[PAULUS from the fifth book of Opinions.] It is shameless for the emperor to claim legacies or trusts based on an incomplete will; for it is fitting for so great a majesty to observe those laws from which he himself seems to be exempt.

Notes

  1. 32.0.23.primperatorem uindicare — An accusative with infinitive (A.c.I.) construction acting as the subject of the predicate adjective phrase 'inuerecundum est'. 'imperatorem' is the subject accusative and 'uindicare' is the infinitive, meaning 'to claim' or 'to demand as one's own'.
  2. 32.0.23.prtantae maiestati — A dative case depending on the impersonal verb 'decet'. While 'decet' classically takes an accusative, here it takes the dative to mean 'is fitting for'. 'tantae maiestati' (so great a majesty) is an abstract expression referring to the emperor himself.
  3. 32.0.23.prquibus ipse solutus esse uidetur — The relative pronoun 'quibus' is in the ablative case, governed by the adjective 'solutus' (exempt from), with 'eas leges' as its antecedent. This refers to the famous legal maxim that 'the emperor is exempt from the laws' (princeps legibus solutus est).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §32.0.23.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:32.0.23.pr

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