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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.5.15.pr

Prohibition of Selling Slaves Due for Trust Manumission

Passage 6425 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The author discusses that a person obligated to manumit a slave under a fideicommissum must not worsen the slave's condition, is generally prohibited from selling him to another for manumission, and is compelled to redeem and manumit him himself.

[IDEM libro tertio pandectarum. ] §40.5.15.prIs qui ex causa fideicommissi manumissurus est nullo modo deteriorem eius serui condicionem facere potest: ideoque nec uendere eum interdum alii potest, ut ab eo cui traditus est manumittatur, et, si tradiderit, redimere illum cogitur et manumittere: interest enim nonnumquam a sene potius manumitti quam a iuuene.
[BY THE SAME AUTHOR, in the third book of the Pandects.] He who is to manumit a slave on account of a fideicommissum can in no way make the condition of that slave worse; and therefore he cannot even sometimes sell him to another, so that he may be manumitted by the one to whom he was delivered, and, if he has delivered him, he is compelled to redeem and manumit him; for it is sometimes of importance to be manumitted by an old man rather than by a young man.

Notes

  1. §40.5.15.prmanumissurus est — The periphrastic conjugation combining the future active participle manumissurus with est expresses here not merely a future intention, but a normative obligation or duty to manumit the slave on account of the fideicommissum.
  2. §40.5.15.printerest — An impersonal verb meaning 'it is of importance' or 'it matters.' It takes the subsequent infinitive clause a sene potius manumitti quam a iuuene (to be manumitted by an old man rather than by a young man) as its subject. The person to whom it matters (the slave) is left understood from the context.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.5.15.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.5.15.pr

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