Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §35.2.85.pr

Deduction of Dowry as Debt under the Falcidian Law

Passage 5530 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text explains how a dowry paid to a father-in-law must be deducted as a debt in the calculation of inheritance and for the Falcidian law, distinguishing between the case where the husband-son is the sole heir and the case where he has a co-heir.

[IDEM libro octauo decimo digestorum. ] §35.2.85.prSi dos socero data est et solus filius heres patri exstitisset, dotem confestim in computatione hereditatis et Falcidiae ratione in aere alieno deducet: aliter enim uidebitur indotatam uxorem habere.
[The same, from the eighteenth book of digests.] If a dowry was given to the father-in-law, and the son alone became the heir to his father, he shall immediately deduct the dowry as a debt in the calculation of the inheritance and for the purpose of the Falcidian law; for otherwise, he will be deemed to have a portionless wife.
quod si filius extraneum coheredem habeat, ipse quidem semper pro qua parte patri heres erit dotem in aere alieno deducet, et coheres eius, antequam dos a filio praecipiatur.
But if the son has an outside co-heir, he himself indeed shall always deduct the dowry as a debt in proportion to the share in which he is heir to his father, and so shall his co-heir, before the dowry is pre-taken by the son.

Notes

  1. 35.2.85.prexstitisset — The subjunctive pluperfect exstitisset in the protasis combined with the future indicative deducet in the apodosis forms a mixed conditional construction, where a past hypothetical event leads to a future consequence.
  2. 35.2.85.prin aere alieno — Literally 'in someone else's copper (money)', this is a technical legal expression in Roman law meaning 'as a debt' or 'among the liabilities' which are to be deducted from the total assets of an inheritance.
  3. 35.2.85.pret coheres eius — Following this nominative phrase, the verbal phrase dotem in aere alieno deducet from the preceding clause is omitted, agreeing in person and number with coheres. The subjunctive praecipiatur at the end is used with antequam to imply anticipation or prevention.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §35.2.85.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:35.2.85.pr

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