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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.5.12.pr-40.5.12.2

Obligations to Free under Trust and the Validity of Freedom

Passage 6422 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Modestinus presents imperial rescripts regarding the obligation of manumission: interpreting a protective testamentary phrase as a requirement for public freeing, establishing the duty of a deceased legatee's successors to manumit, and preserving the validity of granted freedoms even when an inheritance is claimed by the treasury.

[IDEM libro singulari de manumissionibus. ] §40.5.12.prImperator Antoninus, cum Firmus Titiano tragoedos tres legasset et adiecisset: 'quos tibi commendo, ne cui alii seruiant', publicatis bonis Titiani rescripsit debere eos publice manumitti.
[BY THE SAME AUTHOR, in the single book on Manumissions.] The Emperor Antoninus, when Firmus had bequeathed three tragic actors to Titianus and added: "whom I commend to you, so that they may serve no other person", rescripted, after the property of Titianus was confiscated, that they ought to be publicly manumitted.
§40.5.12.1Et legatarius non minus quam heres rogari potest seruum manumittere et, si ante manumissionem decesserit, successores eius debent manumittere.
And a legatee no less than an heir can be requested to manumit a slave, and if he dies before the manumission, his successors must manumit them.
§40.5.12.2Diuus Antoninus et Pertinax rescripserunt hereditate fisco uindicata, quoniam tacite quis rogatus erat ei, qui capere non poterat, restituere hereditatem, et directo et per fideicommissum datas libertates deberi.
The Divine Antoninus and Pertinax rescripted that, when an inheritance was claimed by the treasury because someone had been tacitly requested to restore the inheritance to one who was incapable of taking it, the freedoms granted both directly and through a trust remained due.

Notes

  1. §40.5.12.prpublicatis bonis Titiani — Ablative absolute. It describes the situation where Titianus's property was confiscated by the treasury, which made it impossible for the original legatee to manumit them and prompted the emperor to rule that they must be publicly freed.
  2. §40.5.12.2hereditate fisco uindicata, quoniam tacite quis rogatus erat ei, qui capere non poterat, restituere hereditatem, et directo et per fideicommissum datas libertates deberi — The structure of the accusative with infinitive (A.C.I.) construction introduced by the main verb `rescripserunt`. The core framework is `rescripserunt... datas libertates deberi` (they rescripted that the freedoms granted... remained due), with the ablative absolute clause `hereditate... uindicata` and the explanatory `quoniam` clause inserted beforehand.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.5.12.pr-40.5.12.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.5.12.pr-40.5.12.2

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