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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §44.5.2.pr-44.5.2.2

Exceptions for Son's Oath Gambling and Manumission Price

Passage 7282 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text discusses the effect of an oath sworn by a son-in-power on his father, the exception regarding the eviction of property sold for gambling, and the distinction between a promise made for the price of manumission and one made to burden liberty.

[PAULUS libro septuagensimo primo ad edictum. ] §44.5.2.prSi filio familias delatum sit iusiurandum et iurauerit patrem suum dare non oportere, danda est patri exceptio.
[PAUL in the seventy-first book on the Edict.] If an oath has been deferred to a son-in-power, and he has sworn that his father ought not to give, an exception must be granted to the father.
§44.5.2.1Si in alea rem uendam, ut ludam, et euicta re conueniar, exceptione summouebitur emptor.
If I sell an item in a game of chance in order to play, and, after the item is evicted, I am sued, the buyer will be barred by the exception.
§44.5.2.2Si seruus promittat domino pecuniam, ut manumittatur, cum alias non esset manumissurus dominus, eamque liber factus spondeat: dicitur non obstare exceptionem patrono, si eam petat: non enim onerandae libertatis causa haec pecunia promissa est.
If a slave promises money to his master in order to be manumitted, when otherwise the master would not have been going to manumit him, and, having been made free, he promises it: it is said that the exception does not stand in the way of the patron if he sues for it; for this money was not promised for the purpose of burdening his liberty.
alioquin iniquum est, dominum et seruo carere et pretio eius.
Otherwise, it is unjust for the master to be deprived of both the slave and his price.
totiens ergo onerandae libertatis causa pecunia uidetur promitti, quotiens sua sponte dominus manumisit et propterea uelit libertum pecuniam promittere, ut non exigat eam, sed ut libertus eum timeat et obtemperet ei.
Therefore, money is deemed to be promised for the purpose of burdening liberty only so often as the master has manumitted of his own free will, and for that reason wishes the freedman to promise money, not so that he may exact it, but so that the freedman may fear him and obey him.

Notes

  1. 44.5.2.1uendam — uendam is the first-person singular present active subjunctive of uendere (to sell), matching the subject of the subsequent conueniar (first-person singular present passive subjunctive). The subjunctive is used here within the conditional si clause.
  2. 44.5.2.2dominum et seruo carere et pretio eius — An accusative with infinitive construction functioning as the subject of the impersonal expression iniquum est. The accusative dominum is the subject accusative of the infinitive carere (to be deprived of, to lack), which governs the ablative case, hence seruo and pretio are in the ablative.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §44.5.2.pr-44.5.2.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:44.5.2.pr-44.5.2.2

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