Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §38.1.27.pr

Freedmen Services of Performers and Doctors to Friends

Passage 5912 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The author argues that freedmen practicing pantomime or medicine must provide free services not only to their patron but also to the patron's friends, as otherwise the patron would absurdly have to constantly hold games or be sick to utilize their services.

[IULIANUS libro primo ex Minicio. ] §38.1.27.prSi libertus artem pantomimi exerceat, uerum est debere eum non solum ipsi patrono, sed etiam amicorum ludis gratuitam operam praebere: sicut eum quoque libertum, qui medicinam exercet, uerum est uoluntate patroni curaturum gratis amicos eius.
[JULIANUS, in the first book of Epitomes from Minicius.] If a freedman should practice the art of a pantomime, it is true that he ought to provide his services free of charge not only to the patron himself but also for the games of his friends; just as it is also true that the freedman who practices medicine will, at the will of the patron, treat his friends free of charge.
neque enim oportet patronum, ut operis liberti sui utatur, aut ludos semper facere aut aegrotare.
For it is not proper for a patron, in order to make use of the services of his freedman, either to be always holding games or to be ill.

Notes

  1. §38.1.27.prcuraturum — The future active participle curaturum [esse] with the omission of esse, acting as the predicate in an accusative-with-infinitive (ACI) construction introduced by the impersonal expression uerum est. Its subject accusative is eum quoque libertum. It expresses a natural consequence or duty in the future under the assumed conditions.
  2. §38.1.27.properis — The ablative plural of the noun opera (service, labor). It is in the ablative case because the verb utor (utatur) governs the ablative. Although homographous with the genitive singular of the neuter noun opus, operis (work), it is a distinct word.
  3. §38.1.27.proportet patronum — The impersonal verb oportet (it is proper, it behooves) takes an accusative with infinitive (ACI) construction. Here, patronum is the subject accusative, and the infinitive phrase aut ludos semper facere aut aegrotare serves as the logical subject of oportet.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §38.1.27.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:38.1.27.pr

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