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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §42.2.4.pr

False Confession of Killing a Slave under the Lex Aquilia

Passage 6920 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text provides that in an action under the Lex Aquilia, if the defendant confesses to having killed a slave, they are held liable based on their confession, even if they did not actually commit the killing, provided that the slave was indeed killed.

[IDEM libro quinto decimo ad Plautium. ] §42.2.4.prSi is, cum quo lege Aquilia agitur, confessus est seruum occidisse, licet non occiderit, si tamen occisus sit homo, ex confesso tenetur.
[THE SAME, in the fifteenth book on Plautius.] If a person against whom an action is brought under the Lex Aquilia has confessed that he killed a slave, even though he did not kill him, provided however that the human being was killed, he is held liable on his confession.

Notes

  1. §42.2.4.prcum quo... agitur — The passive verb agitur is used impersonally with the preposition cum, meaning 'an action is brought against someone'. The pronoun is is the antecedent of the relative pronoun quo.
  2. §42.2.4.prlicet non occiderit — The conjunction licet takes the subjunctive (perfect occiderit) to introduce a concessive clause ('although' or 'even though he did not kill').
  3. §42.2.4.prsi tamen occisus sit homo — A conditional clause with tamen ('provided however'). In contrast to the preceding concession (that he did not kill), this specifies the objective requirement for liability based on confession: that the human being (i.e., the slave) was actually killed by some means. The word homo (human being) refers back to the seruus (slave).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §42.2.4.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:42.2.4.pr

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