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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.5.34.pr-40.5.34.2

Limits on Changing the Manumitter and Successive Legacies

Passage 6446 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Pomponius discusses the restriction on changing the manumitter for a slave freed via fideicommissum, the non-applicability of the Lex Aelia Sentia to a minor's request to an heir, and the immediate effect of direct freedom when sequential manumission legacies are rendered void.

[POMPONIUS libro tertio fideicommissorum. ] §40.5.34.prInuitus is, cui fideicommisso libertas relicta est, non est tradendus alii, ut ab eo manumittatur et fiat alterius libertus, quam qui rogatus est manumittere.
[POMPONIUS libro tertio fideicommissorum.] A person to whom freedom has been left by a fideicommissum must not, against his will, be delivered to another, so that he may be manumitted by him and become the freedman of another than the one who was requested to manumit him.
§40.5.34.1Campanus ait, si minor annis uiginti rogauerit heredem, ut proprium seruum manumittat, praestandam ei libertatem, quia hic lex Aelia Sentia locum non habet.
Campanus says that if a person under twenty years of age has requested his heir to manumit his own slave, freedom must be granted to him, because in this case the Lex Aelia Sentia does not apply.
§40.5.34.2Seruus legatus erat Calpurnio Flacco isque rogatus erat eum manumittere et, si non manumississet, idem seruus Titio legatus erat et is aeque rogatus erat, ut eum manumitteret: si non manumississet, liber esse iussus erat.
A slave had been legated to Calpurnius Flaccus, and he had been requested to manumit him; and if he did not manumit him, the same slave had been legated to Titius, and he was likewise requested to manumit him; if Titius did not manumit him, the slave had been ordered to be free.
Sabinus dicit inutiliter legatum fore et ex testamento eum continuo liberum futurum.
Sabinus says that the legacy would be of no effect, and that he would immediately become free under the will.

Notes

  1. §40.5.34.pralterius libertus, quam qui rogatus est manumittere — The correlation between alterius and quam qui... The word alterius means "of another", and the clause introduced by quam serves as the basis of comparison, meaning "the freedman of another than the one who was requested to manumit."
  2. §40.5.34.1minor annis uiginti — An ablative construction with the comparative minor. The phrase annis uiginti functions as an ablative of comparison or specification, indicating the age (under twenty years).
  3. §40.5.34.2inutiliter legatum fore — The word legatum is the accusative of the neuter noun legatum (legacy), serving as the subject of the infinitive fore (future of esse) in indirect speech governed by dicit. The intermediate legacies to other persons are deemed void (inutiliter) because of the ultimate conditional direct grant of freedom.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.5.34.pr-40.5.34.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.5.34.pr-40.5.34.2

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