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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §46.3.19.pr

Loan by a Runaway Slave and Release of the Debtor

Passage 7674 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses the debt relations when a runaway slave lends stolen money to a third party, explaining the conditions under which direct payment to the slave releases the debtor, and contrasting the collection of peculium with its delegation or novation.

[POMPONIUS libro uicensimo primo ad Sabinum. ] §46.3.19.prFugitiuus meus, cum pro libero se gereret, nummos mihi subreptos credidit tibi: obligari te mihi Labeo ait et, si eum liberum existimans solueris ei, liberari te a me, sed si alii soluisses iussu eius uel is ratum habuisset, non liberari, quia priore casu mei nummi facti essent et quasi mihi solutum intellegeretur.
[POMPONIUS in the twenty-first book on Sabinus.] My runaway slave, while conducting himself as a free man, lent to you money stolen from me: Labeo says that you are obligated to me, and that, if, thinking him to be a free man, you have paid him, you are released from me, but if you had paid to another by his order, or if he had ratified it, you are not released, because in the former case the coins would have become mine and it would be understood as if payment had been made to me.
et ideo seruus meus quod peculiari nomine crediderit, exigendo liberabit debitorem, delegando autem uel nouando non idem consequeretur.
And therefore, my slave will release the debtor by collecting what he has lent under the name of his peculium, but by delegating or by novating he would not achieve the same.

Notes

  1. §46.3.19.prmihi — A dative of separation (dativus separationis) with the perfect passive participle subreptos (from subripere, to steal), meaning 'from me.'
  2. §46.3.19.prquod peculiari nomine crediderit — The relative pronoun quod contains its antecedent id (id quod) and serves as the object of liberabit. crediderit is a subjunctive of characteristic or future perfect in the relative clause.
  3. §46.3.19.prconsequeretur — Subjunctive imperfect expressing a hypothetical result or potentiality ('would not achieve'). It contrasts with the preceding indicative future liberabit, hypothetically stating the impossibility of release through delegation or novation.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §46.3.19.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:46.3.19.pr

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