Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §38.1.34.pr

Extinction and Alteration of Services by Illness or Status

Passage 5919 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Explains that the obligations of services can be reduced, increased, or altered, giving examples of services being lost due to a freedman's illness or a freedwoman's elevation in social status.

[POMPONIUS libro uicensimo secundo ad Quintum Mucium. ] §38.1.34.prInterdum et deminutionem et augmentum et mutationem recipere obligationes operarum sciendum est.
[POMPONIUS, in his twenty-second book on Quintus Mucius.] It must be known that sometimes the obligations of services can undergo reduction, increase, and alteration.
nam dum languet libertus, patrono operae, quae iam cedere coeperunt, pereunt.
For while a freedman is ill, the services that have already begun to accrue are lost to the patron.
sed si liberta, quae operas promisit, ad eam dignitatem perueniat, ut inconueniens sit praestare patrono operas, ipso iure hae intercident.
But if a freedwoman who has promised services should attain such a dignity that it is inappropriate to perform services for her patron, these will be extinguished by operation of law.

Notes

  1. §38.1.34.prsciendum est — An impersonal gerundive construction expressing necessity, which takes the accusative-with-infinitive clause (obligationes... recipere) as its subject.
  2. §38.1.34.prcedere — Used in its technical Roman law sense, related to the expression *dies cedit* (the debt or right accrues or begins to be due), meaning here that the right to claim the services has already begun to accrue.
  3. §38.1.34.prut inconueniens sit — A consecutive clause (*ut* + subjunctive) depending on the preceding demonstrative *eam*, describing the degree of the "dignity" (status) attained by the freedwoman.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §38.1.34.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:38.1.34.pr

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