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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.4.16.pr

Condition of a Third Party's Age and Premature Death

Passage 6364 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Julian explains that when a slave is bequeathed freedom and a legacy of land conditional upon a third party reaching a certain age, and that third party dies prematurely, the freedom is granted through a favorable construction of time, whereas the legacy fails.

[IDEM libro trigensimo sexto digestorum. ] §40.4.16.prSi ita scriptum fuerit: 'cum Titius annorum triginta erit, Stichus liber esto eique heres meus fundum dato' et Titius, antequam ad annum trigensimum perueniret, decesserit, Sticho libertas competet, sed legatum non debebitur.
[THE SAME in the thirty-sixth book of the Digests.] If it was written as follows: 'When Titius is thirty years old, let Stichus be free, and let my heir give him a tract of land,' and Titius dies before reaching his thirtieth year, freedom will belong to Stichus, but the legacy will not be due.
nam fauore libertatis receptum est, ut mortuo Titio tempus superesse uideretur, quo impleto libertas contingeret: circa legatum defecisse condicio uisa est.
For, out of favor for freedom, it has been accepted that, even though Titius has died, the time upon the completion of which freedom would occur is deemed to survive; whereas, regarding the legacy, the condition is deemed to have failed.

Notes

  1. §40.4.16.prfauore libertatis — "out of favor for freedom". Ablative of cause or means. It refers to 'favor libertatis', a fundamental principle in Roman law that favors interpretation in support of liberty/manumission.
  2. §40.4.16.prut mortuo Titio tempus superesse uideretur — A noun clause introduced by ut representing the substance of receptum est ("it has been accepted"). mortuo Titio is an ablative absolute, which can be interpreted concessively ("even though Titius has died") or temporally ("after Titius's death").
  3. §40.4.16.prquo impleto — An ablative absolute construction consisting of the relative pronoun quo (referring to tempus) and the perfect participle impleto. It expresses condition or time: "upon the completion of which".
  4. §40.4.16.prcirca legatum defecisse condicio uisa est — The perfect active infinitive defecisse ("has failed") is used as a complementary infinitive with uisa est ("is deemed"). It shows that the favorable interpretation ('favor libertatis') applied to manumission does not extend to the pecuniary legacy (legatum).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.4.16.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.4.16.pr

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