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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.4.18.pr-40.4.18.2

Prior Death of an Heir and Favorable Construction

Passage 6366 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The status of a slave to be freed upon the death of a co-heir is discussed, along with the benign interpretation of ambiguous testamentary conditions for freedom such as 'when I die' or 'in a year'.

[IDEM libro secundo ad Urseium Ferocem. ] §40.4.18.prQui duos heredes instituebat, post alterius mortem seruum liberum esse iusserat: is ex cuius morte libertas pendebat, uiuo testatore decesserat.
[THE SAME in the second book on Urseius Ferox.] A person who appointed two heirs had ordered that a slave should be free after the death of one of them; the one on whose death the freedom depended had died during the lifetime of the testator.
Sabinus respondit liberum futurum.
Sabinus replied that the slave would be free.
§40.4.18.1Haec condicio 'cum moriar, liber esto' uitae tempus complectitur et idcirco inutilis esse uidetur.
This condition 'When I die, let him be free' encompasses the moment of life, and therefore seems to be of no effect.
sed melius est uerba benignius interpretari, ut post mortem suam uideatur testator ei libertatem reliquisse.
But it is better to interpret the words more benignly, so that the testator is deemed to have bequeathed freedom to him after his own death.
§40.4.18.2Sed multo magis haec 'ad annum liber esto' uel ita accipi potest 'post annum, quam moriar, liber esto' et, licet hoc modo accipiatur 'post annum, quam hoc testamentum factum erit, liber esto', si euenerit, ut intra annum testator decedat, inutilis non erit.
But much more can this 'Let him be free in a year' be understood either as 'Let him be free a year after I die' and, even if it is understood in this way 'Let him be free a year after this testament is made', if it should happen that the testator dies within the year, it will not be of no effect.

Notes

  1. §40.4.18.prliberum futurum — In the accusative with infinitive construction of indirect speech, the subject accusative seruum and the copula esse of the future infinitive futurum [esse] are omitted.
  2. §40.4.18.1cum moriar — Since this directly quotes the wording of the testament, the subject of the first-person singular moriar (when I die) is the testator himself. This is consistent with the interpretation shown in the subsequent post mortem suam.
  3. §40.4.18.2post annum, quam — A construction of tmesis where the accusative noun of time, annum, is inserted between post and quam, meaning 'a year after...'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.4.18.pr-40.4.18.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.4.18.pr-40.4.18.2

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