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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §38.1.13.pr-38.1.13.5

Absence of Service Obligations, Accrual of Actions, and Marriage

Passage 5898 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text stipulates the non-existence of service obligations in cases of conditional sale for manumission or freedom gained via imperial constitution, the requirements for actions concerning services, and the effects of a freedman's marriage on the patron's rights.

[ULPIANUS libro trigensimo octauo ad edictum. ] §38.1.13.prSi quis hac lege emptus sit, ut manumittatur, et ex constitutione diui Marci peruenerit ad libertatem, operae ei impositae nullum effectum habebunt.
[ULPIANUS, in the thirty-eighth book on the Edict.] If anyone has been bought under the condition that he should be manumitted, and has attained freedom in accordance with the constitution of the divine Marcus, services imposed on him will have no effect.
§38.1.13.1Sed nec cui bona addicta sunt ex constitutione diui Marci libertatium conseruandarum causa, poterit operas petere neque ab his, qui directas, neque ab his, qui fideicommissarias acceperunt, quamuis fideicommissarias libertates qui acceperunt, ipsius liberti efficiantur: non enim sic fiunt liberti, ut sunt proprii, quos nulla necessitate cogente manumisimus.
But neither will the person to whom property has been assigned under the constitution of the divine Marcus for the sake of preserving freedoms be able to demand services, either from those who received direct freedoms or from those who received trust-bequest freedoms, even though those who received trust-bequest freedoms become his own freedmen; for they do not become freedmen in the same way as our own freedmen do, whom we have manumitted under no compelling necessity.
§38.1.13.2Iudicium de operis tunc locum habet, cum operae praeterierint.
An action concerning services only lies when the services have elapsed.
praeterire autem non possunt, antequam incipiant cedere, et incipiunt, posteaquam fuerint indictae.
They cannot, however, elapse before they begin to accrue, and they begin to accrue after they have been appointed.
§38.1.13.3Etiam si uxorem habeat libertus, non prohibetur patronus operas exigere.
Even if the freedman has a wife, the patron is not prohibited from demanding services.
§38.1.13.4Si impubes sit patronus, uoluntate eius non uidetur liberta nupta, nisi tutoris auctoritas uoluntati accesserit.
If the patron is under puberty, the freedwoman is not deemed to have married with his consent, unless the authority of the tutor is added to his consent.
§38.1.13.5Rati quoque habitio patrono obest in nuptiis libertae.
Ratification as well is detrimental to the patron in the marriage of a freedwoman.

Notes

  1. §38.1.13.prhac lege ... ut — The ablative 'hac lege' means 'under the condition/law that...', with the subsequent 'ut' + subjunctive clause ('ut manumittatur') serving as an appositional clause explaining the specific terms of the condition.
  2. §38.1.13.1cui bona addicta sunt — The demonstrative pronoun ('is'), which serves as the antecedent of the relative pronoun 'cui', is omitted. The subject of the entire main clause is the implied '[is] cui ...', and the corresponding main verb is 'poterit'.
  3. §38.1.13.2cedere — Used as a legal technical term (as in 'dies cedit'). It means 'to begin to accrue' or 'to begin to run', referring here to the moment when the obligation or claim for the specified services begins to take effect.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §38.1.13.pr-38.1.13.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:38.1.13.pr-38.1.13.5

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