Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §35.2.17.pr

Falcidian Deduction in Codicils of Discharged Soldiers

Passage 5462 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text explains a specific deduction calculation under the Lex Falcidia when a discharged soldier makes a codicil and dies within a year, and the total bequests of the military testament and the codicil exceed the estate.

[IDEM libro sexto quaestionum. ] §35.2.17.prSi post missionem faciat codicillos miles et intra annum decedat, ex testamento, quod in militia iure militari fecit, plena legata, ex codicillis habita Falcidiae ratione praestari debere dicitur.

[THE SAME, from his sixth book of Questions.] If a soldier, after his discharge, should make a codicil and die within a year, it is said that the bequests under the testament which he made during military service according to military law must be paid in full, while those under the codicil must be paid taking into account the Falcidian portion.

sed res ita expedietur: si, cum quadringenta haberet, testamento quadringenta, codicillis centum legauerit, ex quinta parte, id est octoginta, quae ad legatarium ex codicillis peruenirent, si Falcidiam non pateretur, quartam, id est uiginti heres retinebit.

But the matter will be settled as follows: if, while having four hundred, he bequeathed four hundred by testament and one hundred by codicil, out of the fifth part, that is, eighty, which would come to the legatee from the codicil if it did not suffer the Falcidian law, the heir will retain a fourth part, that is, twenty.

Notes

35.2.17.prplena legata, ex codicillis habita Falcidiae ratione praestari debere dicitur — plena legata (bequests to be paid in full [without reduction]) depends on the preceding ex testamento, whereas the bequests from the codicil (legata is implied) are contrasted as having to be paid habita Falcidiae ratione (taking into account the Falcidian portion). The verb dicitur governs this construction, either as an impersonal verb with the infinitive clause or in a nominative-with-infinitive construction with legata.
35.2.17.prquae ad legatarium ex codicillis peruenirent, si Falcidiam non pateretur — The subjunctive imperfects peruenirent and pateretur express a hypothetical calculation (the virtual situation if the Lex Falcidia were not applied). The subject of pateretur is either legatarium (the legatee) or the individual bequest from the codicil (treated as singular). Since the bequests under the military testament are immune to reduction, only the remaining portion from the codicil (one-fifth of the total, i.e., 80) is subject to the Falcidian reduction.
35.2.17.prquartam, id est uiginti heres retinebit — quartam stands for quartam partem (a fourth part) and refers to uiginti (twenty), which is a fourth of the preceding octoginta (eighty). Since the 400 bequeathed by the testament cannot be reduced, the heir cannot recover their entire Falcidian portion (one-fourth of the total estate of 400, which is 100) from the testament, but instead retains 20 (representing one-fourth) from the reducible codicil portion of 80.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §35.2.17.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:35.2.17.pr

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.