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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §32.0.71.pr

Scope of Designation for Own Slaves in a Will

Passage 4895 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It explains that when a testament refers to "one's own slaves," those whom the paterfamilias actually regarded as part of his own household/slaves are deemed to be designated.

[ULPIANUS libro uicesimo ad Sabinum. ] §32.0.71.prCum suae ancillae siue serui in testamento scribuntur, hi designari uidentur, quos pater familias suorum numero habuit.
[ULPIAN, from his twentieth book on Sabinus.] When 'one's own female slaves' or '[one's own] male slaves' are written in a testament, those persons are deemed to be designated whom the paterfamilias held in the number of his own.

Notes

  1. §32.0.71.prsuae — The feminine form `suae` directly modifies the adjacent `ancillae` (feminine plural), but semantically the possessive relationship also extends to `siue serui` (masculine plural), implying "or [one's own] male slaves."
  2. §32.0.71.prsuorum numero — `suorum` is the masculine plural genitive of the reflexive possessive adjective `suus` used substantively to mean "his own people" (here, the slaves of the paterfamilias), which together with `numero` (ablative of `numerus`) means "in the number of his own." The phrase `habere aliquem numero` (or `in numero`) is an idiomatic expression meaning "to hold/keep someone in the number of" or "to regard someone as."

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §32.0.71.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:32.0.71.pr

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