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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §48.3.10.pr

Re-arrest of Freed Prisoners and Fines on Magistrates

Passage 8159 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section outlines rules to prevent the unauthorized release of prisoners, directing that unlawfully released individuals be re-arrested and that the magistrates who freed them be fined.

[IDEM libro secundo de officio proconsulis. ] §48.3.10.prNe quis receptam custodiam sine causa dimittat, mandatis ita cauetur: 'Si quos ex his, qui in ciuitatibus sunt, celeriter et sine causa solutos a magistratibus cognoueris, uinciri iubebis et his, qui soluerint,multam dices.
[THE SAME, on the office of proconsul, book 2.] Lest anyone should release a prisoner who has been received without cause, it is provided in the instructions as follows: "If you learn that any of those who are in the cities have been released by the magistrates quickly and without cause, you shall order them to be bound, and you shall impose a fine on those who released them.
nam cum scierint sibi quoque molestiae futurum magistratus, si facile soluerint uinctos, non indifferenter de cetero facient'.
For when the magistrates know that it will also bring trouble upon themselves if they easily release prisoners, they will not act with indifference in the future."

Notes

  1. §48.3.10.prcustodiam — The abstract noun "custodia" (custody, guard) is used here metonymically to refer to the concrete "prisoner" or "person in custody."
  2. §48.3.10.prmolestiae futurum — futurum [esse] is an impersonal future infinitive acting as the object of scierint in indirect discourse. molestiae is a dative of purpose/result, which, combined with the dative of interest sibi (referring to the magistrates), forms a double dative construction meaning "that it would be a source of trouble for themselves."

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §48.3.10.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:48.3.10.pr

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