Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.16.4.pr

Status of Collusive Freeborn Before and After Exposure

Passage 6628 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section addresses the legal status of a freedman who was declared freeborn through collusion, discussing both the questions that arise once the collusion is uncovered and his interim status before its exposure.

[ULPIANUS libro primo ad legem Iuliam et Papiam. ] §40.16.4.prSi libertinus per collusionem fuerit pronuntiatus ingenuus, conlusione detecta in quibus causis quasi libertinus incipit esse.

[ULPIANUS, in the first book on the Lex Julia et Papia.] If a freedman has been declared freeborn through collusion, once the collusion is uncovered, in what cases does he begin to be regarded as a freedman?

medio tamen tempore, antequam collusio detegatur et post sententiam de ingenuitate latam, utique quasi ingenuus accipitur.

In the meantime, however, before the collusion is uncovered and after the judgment concerning his free birth has been rendered, he is certainly accepted as if he were freeborn.

Notes

§40.16.4.prin quibus causis quasi libertinus incipit esse — This clause is framed as a question or legal issue. The implied subject is the freedman who was declared freeborn through collusion. It raises the question of in what circumstances or to what extent (causis) he begins to return to his actual legal status as a freedman (libertinus) once the collusion is exposed.
§40.16.4.prmedio tamen tempore — An ablative of time meaning 'in the meantime.' It refers to the interval of time bounded by the two conditions that follow: 'before the collusion is uncovered' and 'after the judgment of free birth has been rendered.'

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.16.4.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.16.4.pr

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