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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.4.23.pr-40.4.23.1

Prerequisites and Timing for Testamentary Manumission

Passage 6371 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This passage defines the prerequisite conditions for testament-based manumission to become effective and specifies the exact timing when unconditional, time-limited, and conditional grants of freedom take effect.

[MARCIANUS libro primo institutionum. ] §40.4.23.prTestamento manumissus ita demum fit liber, si testamentum ualeat et ex eo adita sit hereditas, uel si quis omissa causa testamenti ab intestato possideat hereditatem.
[MARCIANUS in the first book of Institutes.] A person manumitted by a testament becomes free then and only then, if the testament is valid and the inheritance is accepted under it, or if someone, having set aside the ground of the testament, possesses the inheritance as on intestacy.
§40.4.23.1Testamento data libertas competit pure quidem data statim, quam adita fuerit hereditas uel ab uno ex heredibus: si in diem autem libertas data est uel sub condicione, tunc competit libertas, cum dies uenerit uel condicio extiterit.
Freedom granted by a testament becomes effective immediately when the inheritance has been accepted—even if only by one of the heirs—provided that it was granted unconditionally; but if freedom was granted subject to a time limit or under a condition, then the freedom becomes effective when the day arrives or the condition is fulfilled.

Notes

  1. 40.4.23.promissa causa testamenti — An ablative absolute construction with the perfect participle `omissa`. In Roman legal terminology, `omittere causam testamenti` refers to deliberately refusing to accept the inheritance under the testament, opting instead to possess it on the basis of intestacy.
  2. 40.4.23.1statim, quam — Used correlatively to function as a temporal conjunction equivalent to `statim ac` or `statim ut` ('immediately when' or 'as soon as'). The following verb `adita fuerit` is in the future perfect (or perfect subjunctive).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.4.23.pr-40.4.23.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.4.23.pr-40.4.23.1

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