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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.7.15.pr

Absence on a Free Embassy Treated as Private

Passage 8751 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Ulpian explains that an absence on a "free embassy," which entails no public duties, is not considered an official absence on behalf of the state, but rather a private one for one's own benefit.

[ULPIANUS libro septuagensimo quarto ad edictum praetoris. ] §50.7.15.prQui libera legatione abest, non uidetur rei publicae causa abesse: hic enim non publici commodi causa, sed sui abest.
[ULPIANUS, from the seventy-fourth book on the Edict of the Praetor.]\n\nHe who is absent on a free embassy is not deemed to be absent on account of the state: for this man is absent not for the sake of the public interest, but for his own.

Notes

  1. §50.7.15.prlibera legatione — Ablative of means or attendant circumstance. A "free embassy" (libera legatio) was a privilege granted to senators and other elites to travel on private business with the titles and immunities of an official ambassador, without performing any actual public duty.
  2. §50.7.15.prsui — Genitive of the third-person reflexive pronoun. It stands in contrast to the preceding phrase `publici commodi causa`, with the noun `commodi` being understood (meaning "for his own [interest]").

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.7.15.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.7.15.pr

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