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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.7.15.pr-40.7.15.1

Enriching Inheritance and Payment to Designated Parties

Passage 6486 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This chunk discusses the acquisition of freedom by a statuliber after the heir's death by enriching the inheritance through debt payment, and the validity of attaining freedom by paying a specific person designated at the sale of the slave.

[AFRICANUS libro nono quaestionum. ] §40.7.15.prMortuo herede si statuliber locupletiorem hereditatem tanta pecunia, quantam dare sit iussus, fecerit, ueluti creditoribus soluendo, cibaria familiae dando: statim eum ad libertatem esse uenturum existimauit. §40.7.15.1Heres cum statuliberum decem dare iussum uenderet, condicionem pronuntiauit et traditioni legem dixit, ut sibi potius quam emptori eadem decem darentur: quaerebatur, utri eorum statuliber pecuniam dando libertatem consequeretur.
[AFRICANUS, from the ninth book of questions.]\n He thought that if, after the death of the heir, the statuliber made the inheritance richer by as much money as he had been ordered to give, for instance by paying the creditors or by giving provisions to the household, he would immediately attain freedom.\n When the heir sold a statuliber who had been ordered to give ten, he declared the condition and added a term to the delivery, that the same ten should be given to himself rather than to the buyer: it was asked to which of them the statuliber, by giving the money, would attain freedom.
respondit heredi eum dare debere.
He replied that he ought to give it to the heir.
sed et si talem legem dixisset, ut extraneo alicui statuliber pecuniam daret, respondit et hoc casu conuentionem ualere, quia heredi uidetur soluere, qui uoluntate eius alii soluit.
But even if he had added such a term, that the statuliber should give the money to some stranger, he replied that in this case too the agreement is valid, because he who pays another by the heir's will is deemed to pay the heir.

Notes

  1. §40.7.15.prtanta pecunia, quantam dare sit iussus — tanta pecunia is an ablative of means, qualified by the subsequent relative clause quantam... . The entire phrase modifies locupletiorem fecerit (made [the inheritance] richer by...).
  2. §40.7.15.1traditioni legem dixit — legem dicere means 'to impose a condition' or 'add a term' in a transaction. The dative traditioni (to/for the delivery) indicates the act to which this condition is attached.
  3. §40.7.15.1quia heredi uidetur soluere, qui uoluntate eius alii soluit — uidetur is used with the infinitive soluere in a personal construction meaning 'is deemed to pay'. The subject of this construction is the relative clause qui ... soluit (he who pays...), which contains its own antecedent.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.7.15.pr-40.7.15.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.7.15.pr-40.7.15.1

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