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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §38.4.2.pr

Devolution of Freedmen after the Assigned Child Dies

Passage 5990 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The passage discusses how the rights (inheritance shares) over a freedman are assigned when the child who received the assignment dies, leaving behind his own son (the patron's grandson), a brother, and another patron's son.

[POMPONIUS libro quarto senatus consultorum. ] §38.4.2.prSed si is, cui adsignassem, decessisset relicto filio et fratre et alterius patroni filio, semissem habiturum eum nepotem, quem esset filius meus is qui uiuit habiturus, si ego eum libertum non adsignassem.
[POMPONIUS in the fourth book on the senatusconsults.] But if the person to whom I had assigned the freedman should die, leaving a son, a brother, and a son of another patron, that grandson will have the half-share which my surviving son would have had, if I had not assigned that freedman.

Notes

  1. §38.4.2.prsemissem habiturum eum nepotem — An accusative-and-infinitive construction (indirect speech) where the subject of the future infinitive habiturum (esse) is eum nepotem, with the main verb of declaring or thinking omitted. This "grandson" (nepos) refers to the child of the deceased assignee.
  2. §38.4.2.prquem esset filius meus is qui uiuit habiturus — The antecedent of the relative pronoun quem is semissem (the half-share). The phrase esset... habiturus is an active periphrastic subjunctive imperfect, serving as the apodosis to the conditional clause si ego eum libertum non adsignassem (pluperfect subjunctive), expressing a hypothetical situation in the past ("would have had").

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §38.4.2.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:38.4.2.pr

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