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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §35.2.33.pr

Manumission Request and Exemption from the Falcidian Law

Passage 5478 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

According to a decree of the senate, if a legatee is bequeathed a slave with a request to manumit him and receives nothing else from the estate, the Lex Falcidia does not apply.

[PAULUS libro tertio fideicommissorum. ] §35.2.33.prSi seruus tibi legatus sit eumque rogatus sis manumittere nec praeterea capias, unde quartam, quae per Falcidiam retinetur, recipere possis, senatus censuit cessare Falcidiam.
[PAULUS, in his third book on Trusts.] If a slave has been bequeathed to you and you have been requested to manumit him, and you do not besides receive anything from which you could obtain the fourth share which is retained through the Lex Falcidia, the senate has decreed that the Lex Falcidia does not apply.

Notes

  1. §35.2.33.prnec praeterea capias — The subjunctive present capias (second-person singular, referring to an indefinite "you") is subordinate to the conditional clause introduced by si. praeterea (besides) refers to any acquisition of assets other than the bequeathed slave, where capere is used in its technical legal sense of acquiring under a will.
  2. §35.2.33.prunde... recipere possis — A relative clause introduced by the relative adverb unde (from which), taking the subjunctive possis to express capability or characteristic (such that you could). The antecedent is the implied asset denied in the phrase nec praeterea capias.
  3. §35.2.33.prcessare Falcidiam — An accusative and infinitive construction acting as the object of the main verb censuit (decreed). The subject accusative of the intransitive infinitive cessare (to cease, not to apply) is Falcidiam (the Lex Falcidia), meaning that the application of the Falcidian fourth, which would hinder the manumission, is suspended in this case.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §35.2.33.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:35.2.33.pr

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