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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §40.7.17.pr

Payment for Freedom and the Source of Peculium

Passage 6488 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Neratius discusses that the funds paid by a statuliber to the heir for manumission must come from his actual peculium, and not from funds obtained by incurring debt to the master or by theft.

[NERATIUS libro tertio membranarum. ] §40.7.17.prSi decem heredi dedisset, iussus est liber esse: decem habet et tantundem domino debet: dando haec decem non liberabitur.
[NERATIUS, from the third book of parchments.] If he had been ordered to be free on condition of giving ten to the heir: he has ten and owes as much to his master: by giving these ten, he will not be freed.
nam quod statulibero ex peculio suo dare explendae condicionis causa concessum est, ita interpretari debemus, ut non etiam ex eo dare possit, quod extra peculium est.
For the fact that a statuliber is allowed to give from his peculium for the sake of fulfilling the condition must be interpreted in such a way that he cannot also give from that which is outside his peculium.
nec me praeterit hos nummos peculiares posse dici, quamuis, si nihil praeterea seruus habeat, peculium nullum sit.
Nor does it escape me that these coins can be called part of the peculium, even though, if the slave has nothing else besides, there is no peculium.
sed dubitari non oportet, quin haec mens fuerit id constituentium, ut quasi ex patrimonio suo dandi eo nomine seruo potestas esset, quia id maxime sine iniuria dominorum concedi uidebatur.
But there ought to be no doubt that this was the intention of those who established this rule, that the slave should have the power of giving under that name as if from his own patrimony, because this seemed especially to be granted without injury to the masters.
quod si ultra quis progredietur, non multum aberit, quin etiam eos nummos, quos domino subripuerit, dando statuliberum condicioni satisfacturum existimet.
But if anyone goes further than this, it will not be far from thinking that a statuliber would satisfy the condition by giving even those coins which he has stolen from his master.

Notes

  1. 40.7.17.prquod statulibero ex peculio suo dare explendae condicionis causa concessum est — This quod clause functions as an object of debemus (or the subject matter of interpretari), meaning 'the fact that...'. It is paired with the correlative structure ita... ut... to explain the limits of the interpretation of the right granted to the statuliber.
  2. 40.7.17.prnon multum aberit, quin — An idiomatic expression consisting of the future tense of the impersonal verb abest (aberit) followed by a negative quin clause. Literally 'it will not be far but that...', meaning 'it would be almost the same as thinking that...'

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §40.7.17.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:40.7.17.pr

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