Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §38.16.15.pr

Succession on the Son's Death while Father Is a Captive

Passage 6083 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Discusses the legal consequences concerning inheritance, paternal power, and property ownership when a father is captured by the enemy, depending on whether he dies in captivity or returns by the right of postliminium after his son's death.

[PAPINIANUS libro uicensimo nono quaestionum. ] §38.16.15.prSi pater apud hostes moriatur, defunctum iam in ciuitate filium credimus patrem familias decessisse, quamuis patria potestate, quamdiu uixerit, non fuerit in plenum liberatus: itaque heredem habiturus est iste non reuerso patre.
[PAPINIANUS, from the twenty-ninth book of Questions.] If a father should die in the hands of the enemy, we believe that the son who has already died in the city died as a paterfamilias, even though he was not fully released from paternal power as long as he lived; therefore, this son will have an heir if the father does not return.
sed si postliminio redierit pater iam defuncto filio, quidquid medio tempore per eum quaesitum est, habebit: et non est mirum, si peculium quoque defuncti pridem filii defertur patri, cum ex eo natus potestatis ipsius fiat per suspensi iuris constitutionem.
But if the father should return by the right of postliminium when the son is already dead, he will have whatever was acquired through him in the meantime; and it is not surprising if the peculium of the son who died some time ago is also transferred to the father, since a child born of him becomes subject to the power of the father himself through the establishment of the suspended right.

Notes

  1. §38.16.15.prpatrem familias decessisse — An accusative with infinitive clause acting as the object of credimus (with filium as the subject accusative). patrem familias functions as a predicate accusative, meaning "died as a paterfamilias (sui iuris)."
  2. §38.16.15.prnon reuerso patre — An ablative absolute (noun patre + negated participle reuerso), functioning here with a conditional force ("if the father does not return").
  3. §38.16.15.prpotestatis ipsius fiat — The genitive potestatis is used as a predicate with fiat, meaning "to come under the power/control of." The intensive pronoun ipsius refers contextually to patri (the grandfather, i.e., the father of the deceased son).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §38.16.15.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:38.16.15.pr

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.