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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.12.5.pr-40.12.5.1

Competing Representatives and Praetorian Selection

Passage 6570 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian notes that having freedmen and freedwomen is in the interest of patrons, and explains that the praetor must intervene to select the most suitable representative when multiple potential litigants appear, a rule that also applies to multiple patrons.

[ULPIANUS libro quinquagensimo quarto ad edictum. ] §40.12.5.prInterest enim nostra libertos libertasque habere.
[ULPIANUS on the Edict, Book 54.] For it is in our interest to have freedmen and freedwomen.
§40.12.5.1Quod si plures ex memoratis personis existant, qui uelint pro his litigare, praetoris partes interponendae sunt, ut eligat, quem potissimum in hoc esse existimat.
But if several of the aforementioned persons should exist who wish to litigate on behalf of these, the praetor must intervene to choose whom he judges to be the most suitable for this task.
quod et in pluribus patronis obseruari debet.
This must also be observed when there are several patrons.

Notes

  1. §40.12.5.prnostra — The ablative feminine singular of the possessive adjective derived from the personal pronoun, used with the impersonal verb interest to express the person in whose interest something is. Here it means 'in our interest' (i.e., the patrons').
  2. §40.12.5.1praetoris partes interponendae sunt — The noun partes (plural) means 'role', 'office', or 'duty'. Combined with interponere, it forms a gerundive construction denoting necessity: 'the office of the praetor must be interposed', meaning the praetor must intervene or exercise his discretion.
  3. §40.12.5.1quem potissimum in hoc esse existimat — The pronoun quem is the subject accusative of the infinitive esse, forming an accusative and infinitive construction that serves as the object of existimat ('whom he judges to be...'). The indicative existimat is used because it refers to the specific individual whom the praetor, as a matter of fact, deems most suitable.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.12.5.pr-40.12.5.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.12.5.pr-40.12.5.1

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