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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §34.5.28.pr

Identifying Bequeathed Slaves when Name and Trade Conflict

Passage 5292 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section explains the legal resolution when a legacy designates a slave by a combination of a name from one slave and a trade from another, deciding based on the testator's actual intent, familiarity with their names, and their stated occupation.

[IAUOLENUS libro tertio ex posterioribus Labeonis. ] §34.5.28.prQui habebat Flaccum fullonem et Philonicum pistorem, uxori Flaccum pistorem legauerat: qui eorum et num uterque deberetur? placuit primo eum legatum esse, quem testator legare¹ sensisset.
[IAUOLENUS, from the third book of the posthumous works of Labeo.] A man who owned Flaccus the fuller and Philonicus the baker had bequeathed to his wife "Flaccus the baker": which of them, and whether both, should be due? It was held first that he was bequeathed whom the testator had intended to bequeath.
quod si non appareret, primum inspiciendum esse, an nomina seruorum dominus nota habuisset: quod si habuisset, eum deberi, qui nominatus esset, tametsi in artificio erratum esset.
But if this did not appear, it must first be examined whether the master had known the names of the slaves; if he had, that he who was named was due, even though a mistake had been made in the trade.
sin autem ignota nomina seruorum essent², pistorem legatum uideri perinde ac si nomen ei adiectum non esset.
If, however, the names of the slaves were unknown to him, the baker was considered to be bequeathed, just as if no name had been added to him.

Notes

  1. §34.5.28.prqui eorum et num uterque deberetur — The verb deberetur (subjunctive imperfect) in this indirect question means "to be due" or "to be legally owed under the legacy." It coordinates two distinct questions: qui eorum (which of them) and num uterque (or whether both).
  2. §34.5.28.prnota habuisset — A periphrastic construction consisting of habere and the perfect participle nota used as a predicate adjective, meaning "had known them" (literally, "had held them as known"). This reflects an early stage of the development of the auxiliary "have" perfect in Romance languages.
  3. §34.5.28.prperinde ac si — A conjunctive phrase meaning "just as if" or "exactly as if," which introduces a conditional clause of comparison. Like ac si, it requires the subjunctive mood (here, the pluperfect esset).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §34.5.28.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:34.5.28.pr

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