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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.4.8.pr

Age Restrictions and Exceptions for Minors in Public Honors

Passage 8705 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian explains that minors under twenty-five are generally barred from public affairs and honors, but as a favor, a year already begun may be treated as complete, provided no public interest is compromised.

[ULPIANUS libro undecimo ad edictum. ] §50.4.8.prAd rem publicam administrandam ante uicensimum quintum annum, uel ad munera quae non patrimonii sunt uel honores, admitti minores non oportet.
[ULPIAN, In the Eleventh Book on the Edict.] Minors before their twenty-fifth year ought not to be admitted to administer public affairs, or to duties which are not of patrimony, or to honors.
denique nec decuriones creantur uel creati suffragium in curia ferunt.
Therefore, they are neither elected decurions, nor do those elected cast their vote in the curia.
annus autem uicensimus quintus coeptus pro pleno habetur: hoc enim in honoribus fauoris causa constitutum est, ut pro plenis inchoatos accipiamus, sed in his honoribus, in quibus rei publicae quid eis non committitur.
But a twenty-fifth year which has begun is held as complete; for this has been established in the case of honors for the sake of favor, so that we accept those begun as complete, but only in those honors in which nothing of the public interest is committed to them.
ceterum cum damno publico honorem ei committi non est dicendum, etiam cum ipsius pernicie minoris.
Moreover, it must not be said that an honor is to be committed to him with public loss, even with the ruin of the minor himself.

Notes

  1. 50.4.8.prcreati — Functions as a perfect participle used substantively referring to those "having been elected" (decurions), or as a participle of concession or condition, meaning "even if they have been elected, they do not cast their vote."
  2. 50.4.8.prrei publicae quid — `quid` (a shortened form of the indefinite pronoun `aliquid`) is modified by the partitive genitive `rei publicae`, meaning "something of the state (any public duty)". While it is also possible to interpret `rei publicae` as a dative ("to/for the state"), the partitive genitive is more natural in the context of delegating public affairs or administrative responsibilities.
  3. 50.4.8.pripsius pernicie minoris — The ablative `pernicie` ("with the ruin") is modified by the genitives in apposition, `ipsius` and `minoris` ("of the minor himself"). `minoris` is the genitive singular of the noun `minor` ("minor"), and together with `ipsius` forms a hyperbaton sandwiching the noun `pernicie`.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.4.8.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.4.8.pr

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