Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.12.37.pr

Prohibition of Altering Legal Status by Private Agreement

Passage 6602 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It states the legal principle that a private agreement cannot alter a person's legal status to make them either a slave or a freedman.

[CALLISTRATUS libro secundo quaestionum. ] §40.12.37.prConuentio priuata neque seruum quemquam neque libertum alicuius facere potest.

[CALLISTRATUS, in the second book of Questions.] A private agreement can make no one either a slave or a freedman of anyone.

Notes

§40.12.37.prneque seruum quemquam neque libertum alicuius facere — The accusative pronoun 'quemquam' (anyone) serves as the direct object of 'facere', with 'seruum' and 'libertum alicuius' (the freedman of someone) functioning as object complements in a double accusative construction. The two complements are coordinately connected by 'neque... neque...'. The genitive 'alicuius' grammatically modifies 'libertum' but logically extends to 'seruum' as well, meaning 'the slave or the freedman of anyone'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.12.37.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.12.37.pr

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