Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.16.148.pr

Interpretation of Having Children for a Single Child

Passage 8962 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It explains why a person with only one child is not considered childless, using a grammatical analogy of plural words that can refer to a single object.

[GAIUS libro octauo ad legem Iuliam et Papiam. ] §50.16.148.prNon est sine liberis, cui uel unus filius unaue filia est: haec enim enuntiatio 'habet liberos' 'non habet liberos' semper pluratiuo numero profertur, sicut et pugillares et codicilli:

[GAIUS, from the eighth book on the Lex Iulia et Papia.] A person who has even one son or one daughter is not without children; for this expression, ‘he has children’ or ‘he does not have children’, is always uttered in the plural number, just as writing tablets and codicils are.

Notes

50.16.148.prcui uel unus filius unaue filia est — The antecedent of the relative pronoun cui (such as 'is') is omitted and serves as the subject of the main clause. 'cui' is a dative of possession; literally, 'he to whom there is even one son or one daughter.'
50.16.148.prpugillares et codicilli — These are cited as examples of words that are grammatically plural (or commonly used in the plural) but can refer to a single object (a set of writing tablets, a codicil). This serves as a linguistic analogy for the legal interpretation that 'children' (liberi, plural) applies even when there is only one child.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.16.148.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.16.148.pr

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