Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §36.2.18.pr

Conditional Legacies upon Childbirth and Posthumous Children

Passage 5659 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses a legacy subject to the condition 'whenever he shall have had children,' stating that if the legatee dies leaving his wife pregnant, the condition is deemed fulfilled at his death and the legacy is valid, provided a posthumous child is born.

[IDEM libro trigensimo septimo digestorum. ] §36.2.18.prIs cui ita legatum est 'quandoque liberos habuerit' si praegnate uxore relicta decesserit, intellegitur expleta condicione decessisse et legatum ualere, si tamen postumus natus fuerit.
[THE SAME, thirty-seventh book of the Digest.] If a person to whom a legacy has been left in this manner, 'whenever he shall have had children,' dies leaving his wife pregnant, he is understood to have died with the condition fulfilled, and the legacy is valid, provided, however, that a posthumous child is born.

Notes

  1. §36.2.18.printellegitur expleta condicione decessisse et legatum ualere — The governing verb intellegitur (third-person singular passive) takes a Nominative with Infinitive (NCI) construction in the first part with the subject Is (Is ... intellegitur ... decessisse), and then governs an Accusative with Infinitive (ACI) construction in the second part with legatum as the accusative subject and ualere as the infinitive. Thus, two different infinitive constructions depend in parallel on the same passive verb.
  2. §36.2.18.prpraegnate uxore relicta — uxore relicta is an ablative absolute (noun uxore + participle relicta), with praegnate (the ablative singular of the adjective praegnas, more classically praegnanti) modifying uxore. It describes the attendant circumstance under which the deceased passed away.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §36.2.18.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:36.2.18.pr

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