Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §38.1.31.pr

Exemption of Freedmen from Non-Promised Voluntary Services

Passage 5916 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section states that a freedman who was not imposed services at manumission cannot be compelled to perform any services he did not promise, even if he did so voluntarily for a time.

[MODESTINUS libro primo regularum. ] §38.1.31.prOperis non impositis manumissus, etiamsi ex sua uoluntate aliquo tempore praestiterit, compelli ad praestandas, quas non promisit, non potest.
[MODESTINUS, in his first book of Rules.] A person manumitted without services having been imposed, even if he has performed them for some time of his own free will, cannot be compelled to perform those which he did not promise.

Notes

  1. 38.1.31.prOperis non impositis — The word operis is the ablative plural of the first-declension noun opera (usually operibus), forming an ablative absolute construction with the perfect participle impositis. This refers to the situation where no services (operae) were officially imposed at the time of manumission.
  2. 38.1.31.prad praestandas — A gerundive in the accusative feminine plural used with the preposition ad to express purpose or direction ('to perform'). The noun operas to be modified is omitted, which also serves as the implicit antecedent of the relative clause quas non promisit.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §38.1.31.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:38.1.31.pr

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