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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.2.21.pr

Manumission Before the Prefect of Egypt Under Augustus

Passage 6341 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Modestinus explains that, pursuant to a constitution of the divine Augustus, one can manumit a slave before the prefect of Egypt.

[MODESTINUS libro primo pandectarum. ] §40.2.21.prApud praefectum Aegypti possum seruum manumittere ex constitutione diui Augusti.
[MODESTINUS, in the first book of the Pandects.] I can manumit a slave before the prefect of Egypt in accordance with a constitution of the divine Augustus.

Notes

  1. §40.2.21.prpossum — First-person singular ('I can'). This is a stylistic device common in Roman legal writing, where a jurist uses the first person as a hypothetical subject to explain a general legal rule or possibility.
  2. §40.2.21.prpraefectum Aegypti — The prefect of Egypt. Egypt held a special status as a personal province of the Roman emperor, governed by a prefect (praefectus) chosen from the equestrian order. Although formal manumission (manumissio vindicta) normally had to take place before a magistrate with imperium (such as a praetor or a proconsul), a special constitution of Augustus validated manumission performed before the prefect of Egypt.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.2.21.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.2.21.pr

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