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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.5.13.pr

Delayed Manumission of Pregnant Slave and Child's Freedom

Passage 6423 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It is ruled that if the manumission of a pregnant slave is delayed by chance rather than by design, the child born is not immediately free, but the person under the obligation must deliver the child to the mother so that the child can attain freedom through her.

[IDEM libro nono regularum. ] §40.5.13.prSi praegnas ancilla moram non studio manumissoris, sed fortuito patiatur, ne manumitteretur, liberum quidem non pariet, sed cogetur qui manumittere debuit natum matri tradere, ut per eam perueniat ad libertatem.
[BY THE SAME AUTHOR, in the ninth book of Rules.] If a pregnant female slave should suffer a delay in not being manumitted, not through the design of the manumittor but by chance, she will indeed not give birth to a free child, but he who was bound to manumit her shall be compelled to deliver the child to the mother, so that through her the child may attain freedom.

Notes

  1. §40.5.13.prne manumitteretur — The subjunctive clause introduced by ne explains the content of the delay (moram), meaning "a delay in not being manumitted." While the main verb patiatur is in the present subjunctive, the use of the imperfect subjunctive manumitteretur is due to the attraction of tense by the past action (debuit) in the relative clause.
  2. §40.5.13.prqui manumittere debuit — The antecedent (such as is) of the relative pronoun qui is omitted, and this entire relative clause functions as the subject (nominative) of the main verb cogetur.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.5.13.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.5.13.pr

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