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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.12.6.pr-50.12.6.3

Promises Made for Public Office and the Prohibition of Reduction

Passage 8788 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text conveys imperial rescripts establishing that unilateral promises made for a public office, unlike standard promises, cannot be reduced even at the stage of the heir, bind both men and women upon partial payment, and do not compel the erection of imperial statues without prior promise.

[IDEM libro quinto de officio proconsulis. ] §50.12.6.prTotiens locum habet deminutio pollicitationis in persona heredis, quotiens non est pollicitatio ob honorem facta.
[THE SAME, in the fifth book on the Office of Proconsul.] A reduction of a promise in the person of the heir takes place as often as the promise was not made on account of an office.
ceterum si ob honorem facta sit, aeris alieni loco habetur et in heredum persona non minuitur.
But if it was made on account of an office, it is held in the place of a debt and is not reduced in the person of the heirs.
§50.12.6.1Si quis pecuniam ob honorem promiserit coeperitque soluere, eum debere quasi coepto opere imperator noster Antoninus rescripsit.
Our Emperor Antoninus replied by rescript that if anyone has promised money on account of an office and has begun to pay it, he is under obligation just as if the work had been begun.
§50.12.6.2Non tantum masculos, sed etiam feminas, si quid ob honores pollicitatae sunt, debere implere sciendum est: et ita rescripto imperatoris nostri et diui patris eius continetur.
It must be known that not only men but also women, if they have promised anything on account of offices, are bound to fulfill it; and this is contained in a rescript of our Emperor and his deified father.
§50.12.6.3Si cui res publica necessitatem imposuerit statuarum principi ponendarum, qui non promisit, non esse ei necesse obtemperare rescriptis imperatoris nostri et diui patris eius continetur.
It is contained in the rescripts of our Emperor and his deified father that if a municipality imposes on someone who did not promise it the necessity of erecting statues to the Emperor, it is not necessary for him to comply.

Notes

  1. §50.12.6.prin persona heredis — "In the person of the heir", meaning "at the stage of the heir" or "as applied to the heir". It indicates the legal distinction between the obligation of the deceased and the obligation once inherited by the heir.
  2. §50.12.6.prob honorem — Refers to a unilateral promise (pollicitatio) made by a citizen to a municipality in consideration of or on the occasion of obtaining a public office (honos). Unlike standard promises, a promise made on account of an office (ob honorem facta) had, in principle, a binding force equivalent to a debt, even if performance (such as the beginning of a work) had not yet started.
  3. §50.12.6.3statuarum principi ponendarum — A gerundive construction where the gerundive "ponendarum" (to be erected) agrees in gender, number, and case with "statuarum" (of statues), and "principi" is a dative of advantage (for the Emperor). The entire phrase is a genitive modifying "necessitatem" (the necessity of erecting statues for the Emperor).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.12.6.pr-50.12.6.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.12.6.pr-50.12.6.3

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