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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §48.5.43.pr

Adultery by a Freedman Granted the Right of Gold Rings

Passage 8217 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This fragment discusses whether a freedman who has obtained the right of gold rings should still be punished as a freedman if he commits adultery with his patron's wife or patroness, and whether he can be killed with impunity; the author supports the affirmative view to protect the patron's position.

[TRYPHONINUS libro secundo disputationum. ] §48.5.43.prSi is, qui ius anulorum impetrauit, adulterium commisit in patroni uxorem aut in patronam suam, aut in eius eiue, cuius libertus patris aut matris, filii filiaeue fuit: an ut libertus puniri debeat? et si deprehensus sit in adulterio, an impune occidatur? et magis probo subiciendum poenae libertinorum, quoniam lege Iulia de adulteriis coercendis ad tuenda matrimonia pro libertinis eos haberi placuit et deteriorem causam per istud beneficium patronorum haberi non oportet.
[TRYPHONINUS, Disputations, Book II.] If he who has obtained the right of gold rings has committed adultery against the wife of his patron, or against his own patroness, or against the [wife] of him, or against her, whose father, mother, son, or daughter he had been the freedman of, should he be punished as a freedman? And if he should be caught in the act of adultery, can he be killed with impunity? And I rather approve the view that he should be subjected to the punishment of freedmen, since under the Julian Law on restraining adulteries it was resolved, for the protection of marriages, that they should be regarded as freedmen, and it is not proper that the position of patrons should be made worse through this benefit.

Notes

  1. §48.5.43.prius anulorum — 'The right of [gold] rings' (ius aureorum anulorum), an imperial privilege granting a freedman the legal status of a freeborn person (ingenuitas), without however extinguishing the rights of patronage (patronatus); this dual status underlies the legal question here.
  2. §48.5.43.prin eius eiue, cuius libertus patris aut matris, filii filiaeue fuit — A highly elliptical and correlative structure. Corresponding to the preceding accusative phrases 'in patroni uxorem aut in patronam suam', 'eius' implies '[the wife] of him' and 'eive' implies '[against] her [herself]'. The relative pronoun 'cuius' refers back to 'eius eiue', making the inside of the relative clause mean 'of whose father, mother, son, or daughter he had been the freedman'.
  3. §48.5.43.prsubiciendum poenae — An accusative with infinitive construction (expressing passive obligation with a gerundive) dependent on the main verb 'probo', where the subject pronoun 'eum' and the copula 'esse' are omitted, to be understood as '[eum] subiciendum [esse] poenae'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §48.5.43.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:48.5.43.pr

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