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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §33.1.6.pr

Annual Legacy for Games and Perpetual Duty to the City

Passage 4933 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

In a case where annual funds were left to a city for games with the wish that the heirs preside, the heirs' successors deny their obligation; Modestinus responds that the trust must be paid annually in perpetuity.

[IDEM libro undecimo responsorum. ] §33.1.6.prAnnuam pecuniam ad ludos ciuitati reliquit, quibus praesidere heredes uoluit: successores heredum negant se debere, quasi testator tamdiu praestari uoluisset, quamdiu praesiderent heredes: quaero igitur, an, cum praesidendi mentionem fecerit, ad tempus fideicommissum an perpetuo praestari uoluerit.
[THE SAME, book eleven of Opinions.] A man left annual money to a city for games, which he wished his heirs to preside over. The successors of the heirs deny that they are obligated, as if the testator had wished it to be provided only so long as the heirs should preside. I ask, therefore, whether, since he made mention of presiding, he wished the trust to be provided for a time or in perpetuity.
Modestinus respondit fideicommissum quotannis in perpetuum rei publicae praestandum esse.
Modestinus replied that the trust must be provided to the municipality annually in perpetuity.

Notes

  1. §33.1.6.prquibus praesidere heredes uoluit — The relative pronoun quibus (neuter plural dative) refers to the antecedent ludos and serves as the complement of the verb praesidere (to preside over), which governs the dative. The accusative heredes is the subject accusative of the infinitive praesidere in the accusative-and-infinitive (A.C.I.) construction dependent on uoluit (perfect of volo, 'to wish').
  2. §33.1.6.prquasi testator tamdiu praestari uoluisset, quamdiu praesiderent heredes — The conjunction quasi ('as if') introduces a conditional clause of comparison expressing a counterfactual assumption, taking the subjunctive pluperfect uoluisset. Within its dependent clause, the verb praesiderent after quamdiu ('so long as') is in the subjunctive imperfect to maintain sequence of tenses (simultaneity from a past perspective) and the hypothetical framework.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §33.1.6.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:33.1.6.pr

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