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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §46.3.35.pr

Payment to a Slave Managing Peculium or Master's Affairs

Passage 7690 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses the validity of payments made to a slave who had lent or deposited assets from his peculium, or who had managed the master's business and lent the master's money with permission.

[ALFENUS VARUS libro secundo digestorum a Paulo epitomatorum. ] §46.3.35.prQuod seruus ex peculio suo credidisset aut deposuisset, id ei, siue uenisset siue manumissus esset, recte solui potest, nisi aliqua causa interciderit, ex qua intellegi possit inuito eo, cuius tum is seruus fuisset, ei solui.
[ALFENUS VARUS in the second book of Digests, epitomized by Paulus.] What a slave had lent or deposited from his peculium can be correctly paid to him, whether he has been sold or manumitted, unless some cause has intervened from which it can be understood that the payment is being made to him against the will of the person whose slave he then had been.
sed et si quis dominicam pecuniam ab eo faeneratus esset, si permissu domini seruus negotium dominicum gessisset, idem iuris est: uidetur enim uoluntate domini qui cum seruo negotium contraheret et ab eo accipere et ei soluere.
But also, if anyone had borrowed the master's money from him at interest, if the slave had conducted the master's business with the permission of the master, the same rule of law applies; for the person who contracts business with a slave is deemed, by the will of the master, both to receive from him and to pay to him.

Notes

  1. §46.3.35.prinuito eo, cuius tum is seruus fuisset — The phrase inuito eo is an ablative absolute meaning 'against his will'. The relative clause cuius tum is seruus fuisset, which has eo as its antecedent, specifies 'the person whose slave he had been at that time', anticipating situations where the ownership or status of the slave might have changed between the occurrence of the debt and its payment.
  2. §46.3.35.pruidetur enim uoluntate domini qui cum seruo negotium contraheret et ab eo accipere et ei soluere — The relative clause qui cum seruo negotium contraheret (the person who contracts business with a slave) is the subject of this sentence, going with the verb uidetur (is deemed) which governs the two complementary infinitives accipere (to receive) and soluere (to pay). uoluntate domini is an ablative of means or attendant circumstance, meaning 'by the will of the master'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §46.3.35.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:46.3.35.pr

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