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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.16.15.pr

Distinction Between Public and Municipal Property

Passage 8829 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian explains that the property of a municipality is called 'public' only in an improper sense, as strictly speaking, only things belonging to the Roman people are truly public.

[ULPIANUS libro decimo ad edictum. ] §50.16.15.prBona ciuitatis abusiue 'publica' dicta sunt: sola enim ea publica sunt, quae populi Romani sunt.
[ULPIANUS, in the tenth book on the Edict.] The property of a city is called 'public' improperly; for only those things are public which belong to the Roman people.

Notes

  1. 50.16.15.prabusiue — An adverb modifying the verb phrase "dicta sunt". It denotes a catachrestic or improper usage that extends beyond the strict definition. In Roman law, the term "publicus" strictly belongs only to properties of the "populus Romanus" (the Roman people), making its application to municipal properties ("bona ciuitatis") technically incorrect.
  2. 50.16.15.prpopuli Romani — Possessive genitive. It functions predicatively with the relative pronoun "quae" as subject in the clause "quae populi Romani sunt" to mean "which belong to the Roman people".

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.16.15.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.16.15.pr

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