Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §36.2.8.pr

Conditional Freedom and the Vesting of Legacies to Slaves

Passage 5649 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Discusses the temporal relationship between a legacy to a slave and the condition for their freedom, explaining the legal principle that prevents a legacy from becoming void by vesting before the slave achieves freedom.

[IDEM libro uicesimo quarto ad Sabinum. ] §36.2.8.prNam cum libertas non prius competat quam adita hereditate, aequissimum uisum est nec legati diem ante cedere: alioquin inutile fieret legatum, si dies eius cessisset antequam libertas competeret.
[THE SAME in the twenty-fourth book on Sabinus.] For since freedom is not acquired before the inheritance is accepted, it has been deemed most equitable that the day of the legacy also should not vest before that; otherwise, the legacy would become void, if its day had vested before freedom was acquired.
quod euenit, si seruo pure legetur et liber esse sub condicione iubcatur et pendens condicio inueniatur et post aditam hereditatem.
This happens if a legacy is given to a slave unconditionally, and he is ordered to be free under a condition, and the condition is found to be still pending even after the acceptance of the inheritance.

Notes

  1. §36.2.8.pradita hereditate — An ablative absolute functioning as the temporal clause after `quam`. In the comparative construction `non prius ... quam`, it marks the temporal limit: "not before the inheritance is accepted."
  2. §36.2.8.prinutile fieret legatum, si dies eius cessisset — A mixed contrary-to-fact conditional sentence with the subjunctive imperfect `fieret` in the apodosis and the pluperfect `cessisset` in the protasis. It expresses a hypothetical scenario where the legacy would be void because its vesting day would precede the slave's acquisition of freedom.
  3. §36.2.8.pret post aditam hereditatem — The conjunction `et` here is used adverbially in the sense of "even," modifying the prepositional phrase `post aditam hereditatem`. It emphasizes that the condition remains pending "even after the inheritance has been accepted."

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §36.2.8.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:36.2.8.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.