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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §34.1.19.pr

Validity of Food Legacy to an Absent Freedman

Passage 5155 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The question is raised whether a freedman who had been temporarily absent and thus not receiving food before the patron's death is still entitled to the bequest of food and other things, and it is answered in the affirmative.

[IDEM libro uicesimo secundo digestorum. ] §34.1.19.prTestamento ita cautum fuit: 'libertis meis cibaria quaeque alia praestabam ab heredibus meis praestari uolo': unus ex libertis ex uoluntate patroni negotii sui gratia quadriennio ante diem mortis afuit: ex hac causa cibaria, quae ante acceperat, mortis tempore non accepit: cui tamen liberto eodem testamento patronus, sicut et aliis, quos uiuus manumiserat, legatum quinque dederat.
[BY THE SAME AUTHOR, in the twenty-second book of the Digests.] In a will, it was provided as follows: 'I wish that to my freedmen, the food and any other things which I used to perform should be performed by my heirs.' One of the freedmen, by the will of his patron, was absent for four years before the day of death for the sake of his own business; for this reason, he did not receive at the time of death the food which he had previously received. However, in the same will, the patron had given a bequest of five to this freedman, just as to the others whom he had manumitted while alive.
quaesitum est, an isti quoque cibaria et reliqua, quae ceteris libertis legata sunt, debeantur.
The question was asked whether to him also the food and the other things which were bequeathed to the rest of the freedmen are owed.
respondit: cur non?
He answered: Why not?

Notes

  1. §34.1.19.prpraestabam — The imperfect active indicative verb expresses the habitual or continuous performance of benefits by the testator during his lifetime.
  2. §34.1.19.prcui tamen liberto — The relative pronoun `cui` is used as a linking relative (relative connection), functioning as the indirect object (dative) of the verb `dederat`, with `liberto` placed in apposition.
  3. §34.1.19.pristi — The dative singular form of the demonstrative pronoun `iste`, referring to the specific absent freedman in question. It functions as a dative of reference or a dative of agent with the passive verb `debeantur`.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §34.1.19.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:34.1.19.pr

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