Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §47.2.37.pr

Theft Action for Chasing Away a Tame Bird

Passage 7898 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Pomponius' opinion that an action for theft can be brought against someone who chased and caused a runaway tame peacock to be lost, but only if someone else has begun to possess it.

[POMPONIUS libro nono decimo ad Sabinum. ] §47.2.37.prSi pauonem meum mansuetum, cum de domo mea effugisset, persecutus sis, quoad is perit, agere tecum furti ita potero, si aliquis eum habere coeperit.

If you have pursued my tame peacock, when it had escaped from my house, until it is lost, I will be able to bring an action for theft against you in this way, if someone has begun to possess it.

Notes

47.2.37.prita... si — The adverb ita (in this way) correlates with the conditional clause introduced by si to express a restrictive condition ('only if'), meaning that the action for theft is possible only when the subsequent condition is met.
47.2.37.prfurti — Used with agere (to bring an action, here with tecum 'against you') as a genitive of charge or crime (genitivus criminis), specifying the ground of the lawsuit ('for theft').
47.2.37.prperit — The third-person singular present (or perfect) indicative of the intransitive verb pereo (to be lost, perish). Guided by the conjunction quoad (until), it indicates the terminal point resulting from the pursuit, where the peacock is completely lost to the owner (by reverting to the wild or dying).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §47.2.37.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:47.2.37.pr

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