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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §9.2.21.pr-9.2.21.2

Calculation Period and Scope of Interest for Damages

Passage 1537 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section discusses the starting point for calculating the one-year period for assessing damages under the Lex Aquilia, and whether the valuation covers only the slave's physical value or includes the owner's broader interest.

[IDEM libro octauo decimo ad edictum. ] §9.2.21.prAit lex: 'quanti is homo in eo anno plurimi fuisset'. quae clausula aestimationem habet damni, quod datum est.
[THE SAME, from the eighteenth book on the Edict.] The law says: 'of whatever maximum value that slave had been in that year.' This clause contains the valuation of the damage that has been inflicted.
§9.2.21.1Annus autem retrorsus computatur, ex quo quis occisus est: quod si mortifere fuerit uulneratus et postea post longum interuallum mortuus sit, inde annum numerabimus secundum Iulianum, ex quo uulneratus est, licet Celsus contra scribit.
Now, the year is calculated backward from the time when someone was killed; but if he was mortally wounded and died after a long interval, we shall, according to Julian, count the year from the time when he was wounded, although Celsus writes to the contrary.
§9.2.21.2Sed utrum corpus eius solum aestimamus, quanti fuerit cum occideretur, an potius quanti interfuit nostra non esse occisum? et hoc iure utimur, ut eius quod interest fiat aestimatio.
But do we value only his body, as to how much it was worth when he was killed, or rather how much it was of interest to us that he had not been killed? And we follow this rule of law, that the valuation of the interest should be made.

Notes

  1. 9.2.21.prquanti — Genitive of value or price, used with the verb fuisset to express the highest value that the slave had during that year.
  2. 9.2.21.1quod si — A transitional conjunctional phrase where the neuter relative pronoun quod is combined with si to connect the sentence and introduce a conditional clause ('but if' or 'now if').
  3. 9.2.21.1licet Celsus contra scribit — The concessive conjunction licet ('although') is regularly construed with the subjunctive in classical Latin, but here it is used with the indicative present scribit.
  4. 9.2.21.2quanti interfuit nostra — The construction of the impersonal verb interest. The subject of interest is the infinitive clause non esse occisum ('not having been killed'), and the person concerned is expressed by the pronoun nostra in the ablative feminine singular (used idiomatically with interest). quanti is a genitive of value indicating the degree of interest ('how much it mattered').

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §9.2.21.pr-9.2.21.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:9.2.21.pr-9.2.21.2

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