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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §49.17.11.pr

Definition and Conditions of the Military Peculium

Passage 8629 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

The definition of military property (castrense peculium) is provided, explaining that it includes what is gifted by family or acquired during service, which would not have been acquired without military service.

[MACER libro secundo de re militari. ] §49.17.11.prCastrense peculium est, quod a parentibus uel cognatis in militia agenti donatum est uel quod ipse filius familias in militia adquisiit, quod, nisi militaret, adquisiturus non fuisset.
[MACER in his second book on Military Affairs.] Military property is what has been given by parents or relatives to one serving in the military, or what the son-in-power himself has acquired in military service, which, if he had not been serving, he would not have acquired.
nam quod erat et sine militia adquisiturus, id peculium eius castrense non est.
For that which he would have acquired even without military service is not his military property.

Notes

  1. §49.17.11.pragenti — Dative of the present participle agere used with in militia ("serving in the military"). It modifies the implicit dative of reference or indirect object (i.e., filio familias) of the verb donatum est.
  2. §49.17.11.prnisi militaret, adquisiturus non fuisset — A counterfactual conditional structure with the imperfect subjunctive in the protasis (nisi militaret, indicating a continuous past state) and the active periphrastic pluperfect subjunctive in the apodosis (adquisiturus non fuisset, indicating a past hypothetical result).
  3. §49.17.11.prerat et sine militia adquisiturus — Active periphrastic construction using the imperfect indicative erat and the future active participle adquisiturus. The indicative is used to express a strong objective expectation or certainty ("he was destined to acquire") even under a hypothetical alternative situation (without military service).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §49.17.11.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:49.17.11.pr

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