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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §48.19.39.pr

Punishments for Abortion for Money or After Divorce

Passage 8420 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Citing Cicero, the text mentions a Miletian woman condemned to death for procuring an abortion for money from substitute heirs, and notes an imperial rescript stating that a woman who aborts her pregnancy after divorce to avoid bearing a child for her hostile ex-husband should be punished with temporary exile.

[TRYPHONINUS libro decimo disputationum. ] §48.19.39.prCicero in oratione pro Cluentio Habito scripsit Milesiam quandam mulierem, cum esset in Asia, quod ab heredibus secundis accepta pecunia partum sibi medicamentis ipsa abegisset, rei capitalis esse damnatam.
[TRYPHONINUS, from the Tenth Book of Disputations.] Cicero wrote in his speech Pro Cluentio Habito that a certain Miletian woman, when she was in Asia, because she had procured an abortion on herself with drugs after receiving money from the substitute heirs, was condemned on a capital charge.
sed et si qua uisceribus suis post diuortium, quod praegnas fuit, uim intulerit, ne iam inimico marito filium procrearet, ut temporali exilio coerceatur, ab optimis imperatoribus nostris rescriptum est.
But also, if any woman, after a divorce, because she was pregnant, has inflicted violence upon her own womb so that she might not bear a son for her now hostile husband, it has been replied by rescript of our most excellent emperors that she should be punished with temporary exile.

Notes

  1. §48.19.39.prrei capitalis — Genitive of charge or penalty. It is governed by "damnatam" (condemned) to express the penalty to which the person was sentenced.
  2. §48.19.39.prquod ... abegisset — Subjunctive mood of reported or subjective reason (pluperfect). It indicates that the reason is presented as part of Cicero's narrative (alleged reason), contrasting with the indicative "quod praegnas fuit" which states an objective fact.
  3. §48.19.39.prut temporali exilio coerceatur — Substantive clause introduced by "ut" with the subjunctive, serving as the subject of the impersonal verb "rescriptum est" (it was replied by rescript).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §48.19.39.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:48.19.39.pr

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