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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §48.8.4.pr-48.8.4.2

Unlawful Death by Officials and Hadrian's Ban on Castration

Passage 8243 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian discusses the liability of officials who cause death unlawfully, the punishment for causing death through playfulness, and quotes Hadrian's rescript strictly forbidding castration and penalizing both the executing physicians and those who consent to the act.

[ULPIANUS libro septimo de officio proconsulis. ] §48.8.4.prLege Cornelia de sicariis tenetur, qui, cum in magistratu est esset, eorum quid fecerit contra hominis necem, quod legibus permissum non sit.
[ULPIAN, On the Office of Proconsul, Book 7] A person is liable under the Cornelian law on assassins who, while in office, has done any of these things directed toward the death of a human being, which is not permitted by the laws.
§48.8.4.1Cum quidam per lasciuiam causam mortis praebuisset, comprobatum est factum Ignatii Taurini proconsulis Baeticae a diuo Hadriano, quod eum in quinquennium relegasset.
When a certain person had caused death through sportiveness, the act of Ignatius Taurinus, proconsul of Baetica, in relegating him for five years, was approved by the deified Hadrian.
§48.8.4.2Idem diuus Hadrianus rescripsit: 'Constitutum quidem est, ne spadones fierent, eos autem, qui hoc crimine arguerentur, Corneliae legis poena teneri eorumque bona merito fisco meo uindicari debere, sed et in seruos, qui spadones fecerint, ultimo supplicio animaduertendum esse: et qui hoc crimine tenentur, si non adfuerint, de absentibus quoque, tamquam lege Cornelia teneantur, pronuntiandum esse.
The same deified Hadrian replied by rescript: "It has indeed been established that eunuchs should not be made, and that those who are convicted of this crime should be liable to the penalty of the Cornelian law, and that their property should deservedly be claimed for my privy purse, but also that slaves who have made eunuchs should be punished with the ultimate penalty; and that if those who are liable for this crime do not appear, judgment should be pronounced against them in their absence as well, as if they were liable under the Cornelian law.
plane si ipsi, qui hanc iniuriam passi sunt, proclamauerint, audire eos praeses prouinciae debet, qui uirilitatem amiserunt: nemo enim liberum seruumue inuitum sinentemue castrare debet, neue quis se sponte castrandum praebere debet.
Clearly, if those who have suffered this injury, who have lost their virility, make a complaint, the governor of the province ought to hear them; for no one ought to castrate a free man or a slave, whether against his will or with his consent, nor ought anyone voluntarily to offer himself to be castrated.
at si quis aduersus edictum meum fecerit, medico quidem, qui exciderit, capitale erit, item ipsi qui se sponte excidendum praebuit'.
But if anyone acts contrary to my edict, it shall be a capital offense for the physician who performed the excision, and likewise for the person himself who voluntarily offered himself to be excised."

Notes

  1. §48.8.4.prcontra hominis necem — The preposition contra (governing the accusative) here does not have its usual meaning "against," but rather indicates intention or direction, meaning "directed toward" or "for the purpose of" the death of a human being.
  2. §48.8.4.1quod eum in quinquennium relegasset — The quod clause functions as an appositive explaining the specific content of the action (factum). The subjunctive relegasset represents the objective fact or reasoning that was approved by Hadrian.
  3. §48.8.4.2qui uirilitatem amiserunt — Although the relative clause qui uirilitatem amiserunt is placed at the end of the sentence after the main verb praeses prouinciae debet, its antecedent is not the adjacent praeses but the earlier subject ipsi.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §48.8.4.pr-48.8.4.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:48.8.4.pr-48.8.4.2

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