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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §33.2.42.pr

Economic Benefit vs Ripeness in Determining Fruit

Passage 4994 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text explains that whatever is gathered for human use should be considered fruit regardless of its natural ripeness, meaning that even unripe olives constitute fruit if harvesting them is more advantageous.

[IDEM libro quinto ex posterioribus Labeonis. ] §33.2.42.prIn fructu id esse intellegitur, quod ad usum hominis inductum est: neque enim maturitas naturalis hic spectanda est, sed id tempus, quo magis colono dominoue eum fructum tollere expedit.
[THE SAME, Book Five of the Epitome of Labeo's Last Works.] It is understood that whatever is brought into use for mankind is included in the category of fruit; for here we must not look to natural ripeness, but rather to that time at which it is more advantageous for the tenant or the owner to gather that fruit.
itaque cum olea immatura plus habeat reditus, quam si matura legatur, non potest uideri, si immatura lecta est, in fructu non esse.
Therefore, since unripe olives yield more profit than if they were gathered when ripe, it cannot be considered that, if they are gathered unripe, they do not constitute fruit.

Notes

  1. §33.2.42.prspectanda est — After 'sed id tempus', 'spectandum est' is understood. Due to the contrastive structure (neque... sed...), the gerundive is supplied in the neuter singular to agree with 'id tempus'.
  2. §33.2.42.prplus habeat reditus — reditus is the genitive singular of the fourth-declension noun reditus (return, revenue), functioning as a partitive genitive with plus. The phrase plus reditus means 'more revenue'.
  3. §33.2.42.prnon potest uideri... in fructu non esse — uideri (passive infinitive of uideo, 'to be deemed' or 'to seem') acts as the complementary infinitive to potest, which in turn governs the infinitive clause in fructu non esse ('not to be in the fruit'), referring back to 'olea immatura'. The double negation (non potest... non esse) conveys a strong affirmation: 'it cannot be deemed not to be fruit' (i.e., it must be considered fruit).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §33.2.42.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:33.2.42.pr

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