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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §47.2.26.pr-47.2.26.1

Theft of Wild Bees and Tenant Actions for Stolen Crops

Passage 7887 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This passage states that a landowner cannot bring an action for theft if wild bees or honeycombs are taken, as they are wild animals; it also establishes that a tenant farmer paying rent in money can bring an action for theft against someone who steals standing crops, since they belong to him upon being gathered.

[PAULUS libro nono ad Sabinum. ] §47.2.26.prSi apes ferae in arbore fundi tui apes fecerint, si quis eas uel fauum abstulerit, eum non teneri tibi furti, quia non fuerint tuae: easque constat captarum terra mari caelo numero esse.
[PAULUS in the ninth book on Sabinus.] If wild bees have made a nest in a tree on your land, and if anyone takes them or the honeycomb away, he is not liable to you for theft, because they were not yours; and it is well established that they are in the category of things captured on land, at sea, or in the air.
§47.2.26.1Item constat colonum, qui nummis colat, cum eo, qui fructus stantes subripuerit, acturum furti, quia, ut primum decerptus esset, eius esse coepisset.
Likewise, it is well established that a tenant farmer, who cultivates the land for money, can bring an action for theft against someone who has stolen standing crops, because as soon as they were gathered, they began to belong to him.

Notes

  1. §47.2.26.prteneri tibi furti — teneri is a passive infinitive. The accusative-with-infinitive clause (with eum as its subject) functions as the main clause following the conditional Si... clause, without an explicit governing verb (such as constat), representing a legal opinion or influenced by the subsequent constat. furti is a genitive of charge/crime modifying teneri ("to be held liable for").
  2. §47.2.26.prcaptarum — The perfect passive participle of capio in the genitive feminine plural, agreeing with the preceding apes (wild bees, a feminine noun) and used with numero esse ("to belong to the category of"). terra mari caelo are ablatives of place without prepositions.
  3. §47.2.26.1acturum — The future active participle acturum (with esse omitted) serves as the predicate infinitive of the accusative-with-infinitive construction governed by constat. Its subject accusative is colonum. agere ("to bring an action") takes the genitive of charge furti and the ablative cum eo to indicate the defendant.
  4. §47.2.26.1ut primum decerptus esset — A temporal clause introduced by ut primum ("as soon as"). The pluperfect subjunctive decerptus esset is used to represent an action (the plucking of the fruits) completed prior to the action of the main verb coepisset ("began"), from a past perspective (sequence of tenses).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §47.2.26.pr-47.2.26.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:47.2.26.pr-47.2.26.1

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