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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.16.166.pr-50.16.166.1

Classification of Slaves by Function and Night Outside City

Passage 8980 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Pomponius explains that the distinction between urban and rustic slave households is determined by function rather than location, and defines 'spending the night outside the city' based on the prefix 'per-'.

[IDEM libro sexto ad Sabinum. ] §50.16.166.prUrbana familia' et 'rustica' non loco, sed genere distinguitur: potest enim aliquis dispensator non esse seruorum urbanorum numero: ueluti is, qui rusticarum rerum rationes dispenset ibique habitet.
[THE SAME, in the sixth book on Sabinus.] 'Urban household' and 'rustic household' are distinguished not by location, but by function: for it is possible for a certain steward not to be of the number of urban slaves, such as one who manages the accounts of rustic affairs and resides there.
non multum abest a uilico insularius: autem urbanorum numero est.
The tenement-manager is not very different from the farm-bailiff, yet he is of the number of urban slaves.
uidendum tamen est, ipse dominus quorum loco quemque habuerit: quod ex numero familiae et uicariis apparebit. '
However, it must be considered in what place the master himself regarded each of them, which will appear from the classification of the household and from the under-slaves.
§50.16.166.1Pernoctare extra urbem' intellegendus est, qui nulla parte noctis in urbe est: 'per' enim totam noctem significat.
One is to be understood as 'spending the night outside the city' who is in the city for no part of the night: for 'per' signifies the whole night.

Notes

  1. 50.16.166.prquorum loco quemque habuerit — quorum is a genitive plural referring to the two categories (urbana and rustica familia) implied by loco ('in the position/category of'). habuerit is the perfect subjunctive in an indirect question introduced by uidendum est.
  2. 50.16.166.1Pernoctare extra urbem' intellegendus est, qui — The gerundive phrase intellegendus est (masculine singular) has as its grammatical subject the omitted antecedent (is, 'he/the one') of the relative clause starting with qui. The quoted phrase 'Pernoctare extra urbem' functions as a predicative description of this subject.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.16.166.pr-50.16.166.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.16.166.pr-50.16.166.1

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