Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §34.2.31.pr

Ambiguous Legacy of a Smaller Dish and the Middle Size

Passage 5191 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Labeo's opinion that if a testator who owned three dishes (largest, smaller, smallest) bequeathed 'the smaller dish,' it is deemed to be the medium-sized one unless his specific intention is clear.

[LABEO libro secundo posteriorum a Iauoleno epitomatorum. ] §34.2.31.prQui lancem maximam minorem minimam relinquebat, ita legauerat: 'lancem minorem illi lego'. mediae magnitudinis uideri legatam lancem responsum est, si non appareret, quam lancem ex his pater familias demonstrare uoluisset.

[LABEO, in the second book of his Posthumous Works, epitomized by Javolenus.] A person who was leaving behind a largest, a smaller, and a smallest dish, had bequeathed as follows: 'I bequeath the smaller dish to him.' It was answered that the dish of medium size is deemed to have been bequeathed, if it should not appear which dish of these the father of the family had wished to indicate.

Notes

§34.2.31.prminorem — In the context of the three dishes owned by the testator (maximam, minorem, minimam), the comparative minorem (smaller) refers to the 'middle' size situated between the largest and the smallest. Based on this, the response determines that the dish of 'medium size' (mediae magnitudinis) was bequeathed.
§34.2.31.pruideri legatam lancem — An accusative-and-infinitive (AcI) construction depending on the impersonal passive responsum est (it was answered). Here, lancem is the subject accusative, uideri is the infinitive, and the perfect participle legatam (with esse omitted) functions as a predicate accusative with uideri.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §34.2.31.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:34.2.31.pr

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