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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §48.1.9.pr

Failure to Defend an Accused Slave and Ownership

Passage 8122 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section explains that even if a master fails to defend his slave accused in a capital case, the slave is not deemed abandoned, and remains the master's property even if acquitted.

[MARCIANUS libro primo de iudiciis publicis. ] §48.1.9.prSciendum est, si in capitali causa suum seruum reum crimine factum quis non defenderit, non eum pro derelicto haberi, et ideo, si absolutus fuerit, non liberum fieri, sed manere domini.
[MARCIANUS in his first book on Public Trials.] It must be known that, if anyone has not defended his own slave who has been accused of a crime in a capital case, the slave is not considered as abandoned, and therefore, if he is acquitted, he does not become free, but remains the property of his master.

Notes

  1. §48.1.9.prSciendum est — An impersonal gerundive construction of obligation, which governs the subsequent accusative and infinitive (Accusativus cum Infinitivo) clauses (non eum pro derelicto haberi ... non liberum fieri, sed manere ...). The insertion of the conditional 'si' clauses complicates the sentence structure, but the core matrix remains 'It must be known that...'.
  2. §48.1.9.prmanere domini — domini is the genitive singular of dominus (master). It functions as a possessive genitive (genitivus possessivus) acting predicatively with the infinitive manere, meaning 'remains [the property] of the master'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §48.1.9.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:48.1.9.pr

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