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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.17.175.pr-50.17.175.1

Duties of Free Persons and Position of Successors

Passage 9235 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

On the non-intervention of slaves in duties required by law to be performed by free persons, and the legal principle that a successor to a right cannot have a better position than their predecessor.

[IDEM libro undecimo ad Plautium. ] §50.17.175.prIn his, quae officium per liberas fieri personas leges desiderant, seruus interuenire non potest. §50.17.175.1Non debeo melioris condicionis esse, quam auctor meus, a quo ius in me transit.
[THE SAME, in the eleventh book on Plautius.]\n\nIn those matters which the laws require to be performed as a duty by free persons, a slave cannot intervene.\n\nI ought not to be in a better position than my predecessor, from whom the right passes to me.

Notes

  1. §50.17.175.prquae officium per liberas fieri personas leges desiderant — The relative pronoun quae (neuter plural accusative, referring back to his) is the subject accusative of the passive infinitive fieri. officium is a predicative accusative (complement of fieri, "as a duty"). The verb leges desiderant governs the accusative and infinitive construction, meaning "which the laws require to be performed as a duty by free persons."
  2. §50.17.175.1melioris condicionis esse — melioris condicionis (genitive with a comparative adjective) is a genitive of quality, functioning predicatively as the complement of the copula esse, meaning "to be in a better position/condition."
  3. §50.17.175.1auctor meus — auctor is a legal technical term referring to the transferor, predecessor, or warrantor of a right. Here, the relationship is explicitly defined by the relative clause "a quo ius in me transit" (from whom the right passes to me).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.17.175.pr-50.17.175.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.17.175.pr-50.17.175.1

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