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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §47.15.3.pr-47.15.3.3

Public and Customary Prosecutions for Prevarication

Passage 8077 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Macer classifies trials for prevarication into public ones and those introduced by custom, explaining which cases constitute public prosecutions through examples involving a defendant's plea, accusations against an advocate, and the abandonment of a public trial.

[MACER libro primo publicorum iudiciorum. ] §47.15.3.prPraeuaricationis iudicium aliud publicum, aliud moribus inductum est.
[MACER, in the first book on public prosecutions.] Of the trials for prevarication, one is public, the other has been introduced by custom.
§47.15.3.1Nam si reus accusatori publico iudicio ideo praescribat, quod dicat se eodem crimine ab alio accusatum et absolutum, cauetur lege Iulia publicorum, ut non prius accusetur, quam de prioris accusatoris praeuaricatione constiterit et pronuntiatum fuerit.
For if a defendant, in a public prosecution, should bar the accuser on the ground that he claims to have been accused of the same crime by another and acquitted, it is provided by the Julian law on public prosecutions that he is not to be accused until the prevarication of the prior accuser has been established and pronounced upon.
huius ergo praeuaricationis pronuntiatio publici iudicii intellegitur.
Therefore, the decision on this prevarication is understood to belong to a public prosecution.
§47.15.3.2Quod si aduocato praeuaricationis crimen intendatur, publicum iudicium non est: nec interest, publico an priuato iudicio praeuaricatus dicatur.
But if a charge of prevarication is brought against an advocate, it is not a public prosecution; nor does it matter whether he is said to have prevaricated in a public or a private trial.
§47.15.3.3Si ideo quis accusetur, quod dicatur crimen iudicii publici destituisse, iudicium publicum non est, quia neque lege aliqua de hac re cautum est, neque per senatus consultum, quo poena quinque auri librarum in desistentem statuitur, publica accusatio inducta est.
If anyone is accused on the ground that he is said to have abandoned a public prosecution, it is not a public trial; because neither has any law made provision on this matter, nor has a public accusation been introduced by the senate decree, by which a penalty of five pounds of gold is established against one who abandons the case.

Notes

  1. §47.15.3.1publici iudicii — A predicate genitive (genitive of characteristic or belonging), indicating that the pronouncement (pronuntiatio) belongs to or has the character of a public prosecution.
  2. §47.15.3.1ideo praescribat, quod dicat — In the correlative construction 'ideo... quod' (for the reason that), the subjunctive 'dicat' in the 'quod'-clause indicates that the reason is presented as the defendant's own subjective claim. The subject of 'dicat' is 'reus', and 'se' in the subordinate accusative-and-infinitive clause refers back to the defendant.
  3. §47.15.3.3crimen iudicii publici destituisse — Here 'crimen' means 'prosecution' or 'accusation' rather than the 'crime' itself. 'iudicii publici' is an objective genitive. 'destituisse' is a perfect infinitive meaning 'to have abandoned' and functions as the complement of 'dicatur'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §47.15.3.pr-47.15.3.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:47.15.3.pr-47.15.3.3

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