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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.5.8.pr-50.5.8.5

Exemptions from Offices by Age, Children, and Status

Passage 8723 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Discusses the exemption of persons over seventy and fathers of five children from offices and provincial priesthoods, as well as the rules and limitations of exemptions for tax contractors, children of veterans, philosophers, and appellants.

[IDEM libro primo responsorum. ] §50.5.8.prIn honoribus delatis neque maior annis septuaginta neque pater numero quinque liberorum excusatur.
[THE SAME, in the first book of Responses.] In the case of offices conferred, neither a person over seventy years of age nor a father of five children is excused.
sed in Asia sacerdotium prouinciae suscipere non coguntur numero liberorum quinque subnixi: quod optimus maximusque princeps noster Seuerus Augustus decreuit ac postea in ceteris prouinciis seruandum esse constituit.
But in Asia, those who rely on the number of five children are not compelled to undertake the provincial priesthood; which our most excellent and greatest Emperor Severus Augustus decreed and afterwards established to be observed in the other provinces.
§50.5.8.1Non alios fisci uectigalium redemptores a muneribus ciuilibus ac tutelis excusari placuit, quam eos, qui praesentes negotium exercerent.
It was decided that no other contractors of the public taxes should be excused from civil duties and guardianships than those who, being present, should carry on the business.
§50.5.8.2Uacationum priuilegia non spectant liberos ueteranorum.
The privileges of exemptions do not apply to the children of veterans.
§50.5.8.3Qui muneris publici uacationem habet, per magistratus ex inprouiso collationes indictas recte recusat: eas uero, quae e lege fiunt, recusare non debet.
He who has an exemption from a public duty rightly refuses the contributions imposed unexpectedly by the magistrates; but he ought not to refuse those which are made according to the law.
§50.5.8.4Philosophis, qui se frequentes atque utiles per eandem studiorum sectam contendentibus praebent, tutelas, item munera sordida corporalia remitti placuit, non ea, quae sumptibus expediuntur: etenim uere philosophantes pecuniam contemnunt, cuius retinendae cupidine fictam adseuerationem detegunt.
It was decided that guardianships, and likewise mean physical duties, should be remitted to philosophers who show themselves active and useful to those striving in the same school of studies, but not those duties which are discharged by expenditures; for indeed, true philosophers despise money, through the desire of retaining which they expose their false pretension.
§50.5.8.5Qui maximos principes appellauit et causam propriam acturus Romam profectus est: quoad cognitio finem accipiat, ab honoribus et ciuilibus muneribus apud suos excusatur.
He who has appealed to the greatest emperors and has set out for Rome to plead his own cause, is excused from offices and civil duties among his fellow-citizens until the investigation receives its end.

Notes

  1. 50.5.8.prannis septuaginta — Ablative of comparison with the comparative maior (older). annis is the ablative plural of annus (years), meaning 'older than seventy years.'
  2. 50.5.8.prnumero liberorum quinque subnixi — subnixi is the perfect participle of subnitor (to rely on, be supported by), governing the ablative of means/cause numero, meaning 'those relying on the number of five children.'
  3. 50.5.8.1praesentes — Nominative plural adjective agreeing with the subject of the relative clause (qui), functioning predicatively to mean 'themselves being present' or 'in person.'
  4. 50.5.8.4contendentibus — Dative plural of the present participle contendens (striving, competing), dependent on the adjective utiles or the verb praebent, meaning '(showing themselves useful) to those striving within the same school.'
  5. 50.5.8.4cuius retinendae — Gerundive construction where the relative pronoun cuius (with pecuniam as antecedent) and the gerundive retinendae agree in gender and number. Translated noun-like as 'retaining it (money),' it functions as a genitive modifying the governing noun cupidine (desire for, ablative).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.5.8.pr-50.5.8.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.5.8.pr-50.5.8.5

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