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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §34.5.1.pr

Scope of a Legacy of an Estate Grouped in Accounts

Passage 5265 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Concerning a bequest of "the Maeuvian or Seian estate" where other properties were grouped under the name of the Maeuvian estate in the accounts, Papinian opinions that the other properties are not included in the legacy if the prices of the two specified estates do not differ greatly.

[PAPINIANUS libro septimo responsorum. ] §34.5.1.prFundum Maeuianum aut Seianum Titio legauerat, cum uniuersa possessio plurium praediorum sub appellatione fundi Maeuiani rationibus demonstraretur.
[PAPINIANUS in the seventh book of Opinions.] A person had bequeathed to Titius either the Maeuvian or the Seian estate, although in the accounts the entire possession of several estates was shown under the name of the Maeuvian estate.
respondi non uideri cetera praedia legato uoluisse defunctum cedere, si fundi Seiani pretium a fundi Maeuiani pretio non magna pecunia distingueretur.
I replied that, if the price of the Seian estate did not differ by a large sum of money from the price of the Maeuvian estate, the deceased did not seem to have wished the other estates to pass under the legacy.

Notes

  1. §34.5.1.prlegato ... cedere — A juristic idiom where the intransitive verb 'cedere' takes the dative 'legato', meaning 'to fall under the legacy' or 'to pass as a legacy'. Under this interpretation, 'cetera praedia' (neuter plural accusative) is the subject of the infinitive 'cedere' ('that the other estates pass under the legacy'). Although one could alternatively construe 'cedere' transitively ('to yield/surrender') with 'defunctum' as the subject, 'cetera praedia' as the direct object, and 'legato' as an ablative of instrument or dative of purpose, the former intransitive construction is far more standard in classical legal Latin for 'legato cedere'.
  2. §34.5.1.prnon uideri — This forms the core of the accusative-with-infinitive construction (indirect speech) governed by the main verb 'respondi' ('I replied that...'). The subject accusative of 'uideri' is 'defunctum' ('the deceased did not seem to...'), which in turn governs the perfect infinitive 'uoluisse' ('to have wished'), which itself takes the nested accusative-and-infinitive clause 'cetera praedia cedere' ('the other estates to pass') as its object.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §34.5.1.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:34.5.1.pr

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