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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §38.2.22.pr

Patronage Rights over Slaves Freed by a Soldier Son

Passage 5958 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Presents the differing legal opinions of Iulianus and the Emperor Hadrian regarding whether a slave manumitted by a son under paternal power who is a soldier becomes the freedman of the father or of the son himself.

[MARCIANUS libro primo institutionum. ] §38.2.22.prSi filius familias miles manumittat, secundum Iuliani quidem sententiam, quam libro uicensimo septimo digestorum probat, patris libertum faciet: sed quamdiu, inquit, uiuit, praefertur filius in bona eius patri.
[MARCIANUS, in the first book of Institutes.] If a son under paternal power who is a soldier manumits a slave, according to the opinion of Iulianus which he approves in the twenty-seventh book of his Digests, he makes him the freedman of his father; but, he says, as long as the son lives, the son is preferred to the father with respect to the goods of the freedman.
sed diuus Hadrianus Flauio Apro rescripsit suum libertum eum facere, non patris.
However, the deified Hadrian wrote in a rescript to Flavius Aper that the son makes him his own freedman, and not his father's.

Notes

  1. §38.2.22.prinquit — The subject of the parenthetical verb 'inquit' (he says) is the jurist Iulianus, mentioned in the preceding clause. The subject of the following 'uiuit' (lives) is the son under paternal power (filius familias).
  2. §38.2.22.prsuum libertum eum facere — An accusative with infinitive (AcI) construction dependent on 'rescripsit'. 'eum' is the subject accusative referring to the son (filius familias miles), and 'suum libertum' is the object of the infinitive 'facere'. It indicates that under Hadrian's rescript, the freedman belongs to the son himself, not to his father.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §38.2.22.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:38.2.22.pr

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