Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §46.3.36.pr

Claims on Inheritance and Extinguishment Pending Posthumous Birth

Passage 7691 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Discusses the consumption of an inheritance claim when sued for in full while the posthumous birth status is uncertain, detailing Julian's view that only the provisional share is lost, supported by Aristotle's notes on multiple births.

[IULIANUS libro primo ad Urseium Ferocem. ] §46.3.36.prSi pater meus praegnate uxore relicta decesserit et ex causa hereditaria totum hoc, quod patri meo debitum fuisset, petissem, nihil me consumpsisse quidam existimant: si nemo natus sit, recte me egisse, quia in rerum natura uerum fuisset me solum heredem fuisse.
[JULIANUS in the first book on Urseius Ferox.] If my father died leaving his wife pregnant, and I, on the ground of inheritance, had claimed this whole amount which had been owed to my father, some think that I have consumed nothing: if no one was born, that I had acted rightly, because in the nature of things it would have been true that I was the sole heir.
IULIANUS notat: uerius est me eam partem perdidisse, pro qua heres fuissem, antequam certum fuisset neminem nasci, aut quartam partem, quia tres nasci potuerunt, aut sextam, quia quinque: nam et Aristoteles scripsit quinque nasci posse, quia uuluae mulierum totidem receptacula habere possunt: et esse mulierem Romae Alexandrinam ab Aegypto, quae quinque simul peperit et tum habebat incolumes, et hoc et in Aegypto adfirmatum est mihi.
Julian notes: it is nearer the truth that I lost that share for which I would have been heir before it was certain that no one would be born, or a fourth share because three could have been born, or a sixth share because five could: for Aristotle also wrote that five can be born, because the wombs of women can have just as many receptacles; and that there was an Alexandrian woman from Egypt in Rome, who gave birth to five at one time and then had them safe and sound, and this was also confirmed to me in Egypt.

Notes

  1. §46.3.36.prpetissem — A syncopated form of petiuissem (pluperfect subjunctive), representing a counterfactual or hypothetical action in the past ("had I claimed").
  2. §46.3.36.prconsumpsisse — Perfect infinitive of consumere ("to consume, extinguish"). In Roman civil procedure, this refers to the consumption of a right of action by joinder of issue (litis contestatio). The issue is whether claiming the whole debt before the birth status is determined consumes the entire claim.
  3. §46.3.36.prpro qua heres fuissem — The relative clause pro qua (with the relative pronoun in the feminine ablative singular referring to eam partem) takes the pluperfect subjunctive fuissem to define the hypothetical share for which the claimant would have stood as heir before the outcome of the pregnancy was settled.
  4. §46.3.36.presse mulierem — Accusative with infinitive clause. It functions as a continuation of the indirect discourse depending on Aristoteles scripsit, or as an independent indirect statement reporting a well-known contemporary occurrence regarding the multiple birth of the Alexandrian woman in Rome.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §46.3.36.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:46.3.36.pr

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.