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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.12.14.pr

Death Before Work Completion and Heirs' Obligations

Passage 8796 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Explains the obligations concerning a promised public work if the promisor dies before completion, distinguishing the liabilities of outside heirs from those who are among the children.

[POMPONIUS libro sexto epistularum et uariarum lectionum. ] §50.12.14.prSi quis sui alieniue honoris causa opus facturum se in aliqua ciuitate promiserit, ad perficiendum tam ipse quam heres eius ex constitutione diui Traiani obligatus est.
[POMPONIUS, in the sixth book of Letters and Miscellaneous Readings.] If anyone has promised that he will construct a work in some city for the sake of his own or another's office, both he himself and his heir are bound to complete it under a constitution of the deified Trajan.
sed si quis ob honorem opus facturum se ciuitate aliqua promiserit atque inchoauerit et priusquam perficeret, decesserit: heres eius extraneus quidem necesse habet aut perficere id aut partem quintam patrimonii relicti sibi ab eo, qui id opus facere instituerat, si ita mallet, ciuitati, in qua id opus fieri coeptum est, dare: is autem, qui ex numero liberorum est, si heres exstitit, non quintae partis, sed decimae concedendae necessitate adficitur.
But if anyone has promised that he will construct a work in some city on account of an office, and has commenced it, and dies before he completes it: an outside heir is indeed obliged either to complete it, or, if he should so prefer, to give a fifth part of the patrimony left to him by the person who had undertaken to construct the work to the city in which the work was begun to be built; whereas one who is of the number of children, if he has become heir, is bound by the necessity of granting not a fifth part, but a tenth.
et haec diuus Antoninus constituit.
And the deified Antoninus established these rules.

Notes

  1. §50.12.14.prheres eius extraneus — The "outside heir" (heres extraneus) refers to an heir who was not under the paternal power (patria potestas) of the deceased. In contrast, those "of the number of children" (liberi) mentioned later enjoy a privileged reduction of the obligation.
  2. §50.12.14.prpatrimonii relicti sibi ab eo — relicti is a perfect participle modifying patrimonii, and ab eo denotes the agent of the passive action ("left by him"). Furthermore, ab eo acts as the antecedent of the relative pronoun qui.
  3. §50.12.14.prnon quintae partis, sed decimae concedendae necessitate adficitur — decimae (one-tenth) is a genitive singular agreeing with the gerundive concedendae, forming a genitive phrase modifying necessitate (ablative, "by the necessity of granting a tenth part").

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.12.14.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.12.14.pr

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