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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §48.19.33.pr

Freedom and Legacies for Slaves under Temporary Confinement

Passage 8414 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Based on a rescript of the brother Emperors, it discusses that slaves condemned to temporary confinement can obtain freedom and legacies after serving their term, and the restriction if the benefit of freedom arises during confinement.

[PAPINIANUS libro secundo quaestionum. ] §48.19.33.prFratres imperatores rescripserunt seruos in temporaria uincula damnatos libertatem et hereditatem siue legatum, postquam tempus expleuerint, consequi, quia temporaria coercitio, quae descendit ex sententia, poenae est abolitio.
[PAPINIANUS libro secundo quaestionum.] The brother Emperors wrote in a rescript that slaves condemned to temporary confinement obtain their freedom and inheritance or legacy after they have completed their term, because temporary coercion, which derives from a sentence, is the abolition of the penalty.
si autem beneficium libertatis in uinculis eos inueniat, ratio iuris et uerba constitutionis libertati refragantur.
But if the benefit of freedom should find them in confinement, the reasoning of the law and the words of the constitution oppose their freedom.
plane si testamento libertas data sit et eo tempore, quo aditur hereditas, tempus uinculorum solutum sit, recte manumissus intellegetur, non secus ac si pignori datum seruum debitor manumisisset eiusque post liberatum pignus adita fuisset hereditas.
Clearly, if freedom was given by a will and at the time when the inheritance is entered upon, the period of confinement has expired, he will rightly be understood to have been manumitted, no differently than if a debtor had manumitted a slave given in pledge, and the inheritance had been entered upon after the pledge was released.

Notes

  1. 48.19.33.prpost liberatum pignus — A construction of the 'ab urbe condita' type, where the preposition post governs the noun pignus modified by the perfect participle liberatum. It is to be translated as 'after the pledge was released', rather than 'after the released pledge'.
  2. 48.19.33.preo tempore, quo aditur hereditas — The relative pronoun quo (ablative) refers back to the antecedent tempore (ablative), functioning adverbially to mean 'at the time when'. aditur is a passive verb with hereditas as its subject, meaning 'the inheritance is entered upon'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §48.19.33.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:48.19.33.pr

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