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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §33.1.23.pr

Presumption of Perpetual Legacy for Birthday Distributions

Passage 4950 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

A rescript of the Emperors Severus and Antoninus stating that a testator's wish to distribute money to decurions on his birthday constitutes a perpetual legacy rather than one limited to a single year.

[MARCIANUS libro sexto institutionum. ] §33.1.23.prCum quidam decurionibus diuisiones dari uoluisset die natalis sui, diui Seuerus et Antoninus rescripserunt non esse uerisimile testatorem de uno anno sensisse, sed de perpetuo legato.
[MARCIANUS, Institutes, book VI.] When a certain person had wished that distributions be given to the decurions on his birthday, the divine Severus and Antoninus replied by rescript that it was not likely that the testator had in mind only a single year, but rather a perpetual legacy.

Notes

  1. §33.1.23.prnon esse uerisimile testatorem de uno anno sensisse, sed de perpetuo legato — An indirect speech construction (accusative with infinitive, ACI) depending on 'rescripserunt', inside of which another infinitive clause 'testatorem... sensisse' acts as the subject of the impersonal expression 'non esse uerisimile'. The adversative 'sed' grammatically connects to the inner content, meaning 'the testator did not have in mind a single year, but rather a perpetual legacy,' or contrastively ellipts '[it was likely that he had in mind] a perpetual legacy'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §33.1.23.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:33.1.23.pr

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