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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.16.225.pr

Requirement of an Overt Act to Constitute Fugitive Status

Passage 9039 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Tryphoninus argues that the definition of a fugitive or a wanderer, as well as a thief or an adulterer, requires not just mental intention or disposition, but the accompaniment of an actual act to be established.

[TRYPHONINUS libro primo disputationum. ] §50.16.225.pr'Fugitiuus' est non is, qui solum consilium fugiendi a domino suscepit, licet id se facturum iactauerit, sed qui ipso facto fugae initium mente deduxerit.
[TRYPHONINUS, in the first book of Disputations.] A 'fugitive' is not one who has merely conceived the intention of fleeing from his master, even though he may have boasted that he would do so, but one who by the very act has carried into effect the beginning of flight with intent.
nam et furem adulterum aleatorem quamquam aliqua significatione ex animi propositione cuiusque sola quis dicere posset, ut etiam is, qui numquam alienam rem inuito domino subtraxerit, numquam alienam matrem familias corruperit, si modo eius mentis sit, ut occasione data id commissurus sit, tamen oportere eadem haec crimina adsumpto actu intellegi.
For although one might, in some sense, speak of a thief, an adulterer, or a gambler solely from each person's mental disposition—so that even a person who has never taken away another's property against the owner's will, and has never corrupted another's mother of a family, might be so called, if only he is of such a mind that he would commit the act if given the opportunity—nevertheless, these same offenses must be understood to require the addition of an act.
et ideo fugitiuum quoque et erronem non secundum propositionem solam, sed cum aliquo actu intellegi constat.
And therefore, it is established that a fugitive also, and a wanderer, are to be understood not according to disposition alone, but with some act.

Notes

  1. §50.16.225.prmente deduxerit — The verb deduxerit with mente means "has derived [the beginning of flight] in his mind" or "has carried into effect with intent". It indicates that the subjective intention (mente) has materialized into an objective beginning (initium), distinguished from mere boasting or daydreaming.
  2. §50.16.225.prquamquam ... quis dicere posset — The conjunction quamquam takes the imperfect subjunctive posset to express concession ("although one might say"). This syntax, using the subjunctive instead of the indicative, is common in post-classical and legal Latin.
  3. §50.16.225.pradsumpto actu — Ablative absolute (adsumpto is the perfect participle of adsumere, "to take in addition", "to assume"). It means "an act having been added" or "only when an actual act is accompanied".

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.16.225.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.16.225.pr

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