[PAULUS libro septimo ad Plautium. ] §38.1.39.prSi ita stipulatio a patrono facta sit: 'si decem dierum operas non dederis, uiginti nummos dare spondes'? uidendum est, an nec uiginti actio danda sit, quasi onerandae libertatis gratia promissi sint, nec operarum, quae promissae non sint? an uero operae dumtaxat promissae fingi debeant, ne patronus omnimodo excludatur? et hoc praetor quoque sentit operas dumtaxat promissas. §38.1.39.1Sequens illa quaestio est, an libertus impetrare debeat, ne maioris summae quam uiginti condemnetur, quia uidetur quodammodo patronus tanti operas aestimasse ideoque non deberet egredi taxationem uiginti.
[PAULUS, in his seventh book on Plautius.]If a stipulation has been made by a patron in this way: 'If you do not perform ten days' services, do you promise to pay twenty coins?' we must consider whether neither an action for the twenty coins should be granted, as if they were promised for the sake of burdening his freedom, nor an action for the services, which were not promised; or whether indeed only the services should be deemed to have been promised, lest the patron be excluded in every way. And the praetor also holds this view, that only the services were promised.The next question is whether the freedman should obtain that he be not condemned to a greater sum than twenty, because the patron seems in a way to have valued the services at that amount, and therefore the valuation of twenty should not be exceeded.
sed iniquum est nec oportet liberto hoc indulgere, quia non debet ex parte obligationem comprobare, ex parte tamquam de iniqua queri.
But this is unfair, and one ought not to grant this to the freedman, because he ought not in part to approve the obligation, and in part complain of it as if it were unfair.