[ULPIANUS libro quadragensimo tertio ad Sabinum. ] §46.3.5.prIn his uero, quae praesenti die debentur, constat, quotiens indistincte quid soluitur, in grauiorem causam uideri solutum, si autem nulla praegrauet, id est si omnia nomina similia fuerint, in antiquiorem.
[ULPIANUS libro quadragensimo tertio ad Sabinum.] But in the case of those debts which are due on the present day, it is established that whenever anything is paid without designation, it is deemed to have been paid toward the more burdensome obligation; but if none is more burdensome, that is, if all the debts are similar, then toward the older one.
grauior uidetur, quae et sub satisdatione uidetur, quam ea quae pura est.
An obligation seems more burdensome which is owed under security, than one which is simple.
§46.3.5.1Si duos quis dederit fideiussores, potest ita soluere, ut unum liberet.
If anyone has provided two sureties, he can pay in such a way as to release one of them.
§46.3.5.2Imperator Antoninus cum diuo patre suo rescripsit, cum distractis pignoribus creditor pecuniam redigit: si sint usurae debitae et aliae indebitae, quod soluitur in usuras, ad utramque causam usurarum tam debitarum quam indebitarum pertinere: puta quaedam earum ex stipulatione, quaedam ex pacto naturaliter debebantur.
The Emperor Antoninus, with his divine father, issued a rescript concerning the case where a creditor recovers money by selling pledges: if there are interest payments due and others not due, that which is paid toward interest pertains to both causes of interest, both due and not due; for example, some of them were owed under a stipulation, others naturally under a pact.
si uero summa usurarum debitarum et non debitarum non eadem sit, aequaliter ad utramque causam proficit quod solutum est, non pro rata, ut uerba rescripti ostendunt.
But if the sum of the due and undue interest is not the same, that which is paid benefits both causes equally, not pro rata, as the words of the rescript show.
sed si forte usurae non sint debitae et quis simpliciter soluerit, quas omnino non erat stipulatus, imperator Antoninus cum diuo patre suo rescripsit, ut in sortem cedant.
But if by chance no interest is due, and someone has simply paid interest which he had not stipulated for at all, the Emperor Antoninus, with his divine father, issued a rescript that it should be applied to the principal.
eidem autem rescripto ita subicitur: 'Quod generaliter constitutum est prius in usuras nummum solutum accepto ferendum, ad eas usuras uidetur pertinere, quas debitor exsoluere cogitur: et sicut ex pacti conuentione datae repeti non possunt, ita proprio titulo non numeratae pro solutis ex arbitrio percipientis non habebuntur'. §46.3.5.3Apud Marcellum libro uicensimo digestorum quaeritur, si quis ita cauerit debitori 'in sortem et usuras se accipere', utrum pro rata et sorti et usuris decedat an uero prius in usuras et, si quid superest, in sortem'.
Moreover, to the same rescript it is added: "The general rule established that money paid is to be credited first to interest seems to apply to that interest which the debtor is compelled to pay; and just as interest paid under an agreement cannot be recovered, so what is paid without a specific title will not be held as paid at the discretion of the recipient." In Marcellus, in the twentieth book of his Digests, the question is raised: if someone has given a receipt to a debtor stating that "he receives toward principal and interest," whether it is deducted pro rata from both the principal and the interest, or indeed first from the interest, and if anything remains, from the principal.
sed ego non dubito, quin haec cautio 'in sortem et in usuras' prius usuras admittat, tunc deinde, si quid superfuerit, in sortem cedat.
But I do not doubt that this receipt "toward principal and interest" admits interest first, and then, if anything remains, is applied to the principal.