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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §48.3.14.pr-48.3.14.7

Guard Liability and Penalties for Prisoner Escape or Death

Passage 8163 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Modestinus outlines the liabilities and specific punishments for guards when a prisoner escapes, dies by suicide, or dies by accident, as well as procedures for search periods and runaway slave compensation.

[HERENNIUS MODESTINUS libro quarto de poenis. ] §48.3.14.prNon est facile tironi custodia credenda: nam ea prodita is culpae reus est, qui eam ei commisit.
[HERENNIUS MODESTINUS, On Punishments, book 4] Custody is not easily to be entrusted to a recruit; for if it is betrayed, he who entrusted it to him is guilty of fault.
§48.3.14.1Nec uni, sed duobus custodia committenda est.
Nor should custody be entrusted to one person, but to two.
§48.3.14.2Qui si neglegentia amiserint, pro modo culpae uel castigantur uel militiam mutant: quod si leuis persona custodiae fuit, castigati restituuntur.
If they lose the prisoner through negligence, they are either punished or they change their service, according to the degree of their fault; but if the prisoner was a person of minor importance, they are restored after being punished.
nam si miseratione custodiam quis dimiserit, militiam mutat: fraudulenter autem si fuerit uersatus in dimittenda custodia, uel capite punitur uel in extremum gradum militiae datur.
For if anyone releases a prisoner out of pity, he changes his service; but if he has acted fraudulently in releasing the prisoner, he is either punished capitally or placed in the lowest rank of military service.
interdum uenia datur: nam cum custodia cum altero custode simul fugisset, alteri uenia data est.
Sometimes pardon is granted; for when a prisoner had fled together with one of the guards, pardon was granted to the other.
§48.3.14.3Sed si se custodia interfecerit uel praecipitauerit, militi culpae adscribitur, id est castigabitur.
But if the prisoner kills or throws himself down, it is imputed as a fault to the soldier, that is, he will be punished.
§48.3.14.4Quod si ipse custos custodiam interfecerit, homicidii reus est:
But if the guard himself kills the prisoner, he is guilty of homicide.
§48.3.14.5Ergo si casu custodia defuncta dicatur, testationibus id probandum est et sic uenia dabitur.
Therefore, if it is said that the prisoner died by accident, this must be proved by written testaments, and thus pardon will be granted.
§48.3.14.6Solet praeterea amissa culpa custodia, si tamen intersit eam adprehendi, tempus causa cognita militi dari ad eam requirendam, applicito ei alio milite.
Furthermore, if a prisoner is lost through negligence, and yet it is of importance that he be apprehended, it is customary, after the case has been investigated, for time to be given to the soldier to search for him, with another soldier assigned to him.
§48.3.14.7Quod si fugitiuum domino reddendum prodiderit, si facultates habeat, domino pretium reddere iuberi Saturninus probat.
But if he has allowed a runaway slave who ought to be restored to his master to escape, Saturninus approves that, if he has the means, he should be ordered to pay the price to the master.

Notes

  1. §48.3.14.prtironi — Dative of agent used in connection with the gerundive credenda.
  2. §48.3.14.2custodiae — Genitive of the noun custodia. Here, custodia refers to the concrete person of the 'prisoner' rather than the abstract concept of 'custody', and persona custodiae means 'the social status or importance of the prisoner'.
  3. §48.3.14.3militi culpae adscribitur — A double dative construction consisting of militi (dative of reference) and culpae (dative of purpose/result), meaning 'it is imputed to the soldier as a fault'.
  4. §48.3.14.6intersit eam adprehendi — The accusative and infinitive clause eam adprehendi functions as the subject of the impersonal verb intersit. Here, eam is the accusative pronoun referring to the prisoner (custodia, feminine noun), and adprehendi is the passive infinitive.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §48.3.14.pr-48.3.14.7. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:48.3.14.pr-48.3.14.7

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