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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.12.39.pr-40.12.39.3

Rules on Proof, Calumny, and Standing in Status Suits

Passage 6604 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section outlines the rules regarding status lawsuits, allowing voluntary proof of freeborn status, punishing malicious prosecution with penalties up to exile, prohibiting former guardians from challenging their pupils' status, and allowing a husband to raise status questions against his wife who is also his freedwoman.

[IDEM libro quinto sententiarum. ] §40.12.39.prCui necessitas probandi de ingenuitate sua non incumbit, ultro si ipse probare desideret, audiendus est.
[THE SAME, in the fifth book of Opinions.] Anyone upon whom the necessity of proving his own freeborn status does not lie, if he himself desires to prove it of his own accord, must be heard.
§40.12.39.1Qui de ingenuitate cognoscunt, de calumnia eius, qui temere controuersiam mouit, ad modum exilii possunt ferre sententiam.
Those who adjudicate concerning freeborn status can pronounce sentence, to the extent of exile, for the malicious prosecution of him who has rashly raised a dispute.
§40.12.39.2Tutores uel curatores pupillorum, quorum tutelam et res administrauerunt, postea status quaestionem facere non possunt.
Tutors or curators of pupils, whose guardianship and property they have administered, cannot afterwards raise a question concerning their status.
§40.12.39.3Maritus uxori eidemque libertae status quaestionem inferre non prohibetur.
A husband is not prohibited from bringing a question of status against his wife who is also his freedwoman.

Notes

  1. §40.12.39.prCui ... audiendus est — The pronoun 'is' which serves as the subject of the main clause is omitted and must be understood as the antecedent of the relative pronoun 'cui'. The structure is: 'He, upon whom... does not lie (is, cui... non incumbit), must be heard (audiendus est)'. 'Audiendus est' uses the gerundive to express necessity or obligation.
  2. §40.12.39.1ad modum exilii — An expression formed with the preposition 'ad' and the accusative of 'modus' (measure, limit, manner), meaning 'up to the limit of exile' or 'in the manner of exile', indicating the upper limit of the penalty that the judges can impose.
  3. §40.12.39.3eidemque libertae — The dative feminine singular form 'eidem' of the pronoun 'idem' (the same) with the enclitic conjunction '-que'. It emphasizes the dual legal status of the same woman who is both 'wife' (uxori) and 'at the same time a freedwoman' (libertae) of her husband.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.12.39.pr-40.12.39.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.12.39.pr-40.12.39.3

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