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In the text of the Digest: delegare est vice sua alium reum dare creditori vel cui jusserit, Dig. 46, 2, 11, pr., the translation, p. 430, assumes that cui jusserit means cui jusserit creditor reum dari but from the foregoing it appears to mean cui jusserit delegans promitti: so that the whole passage should be translated: Delegation is to give another person instead of one's self as debtor

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either to a creditor or to a non-creditor.'

(2) a. In the same way Delegatus may either be indebted to Delegator and have solvendi animus, as is assumed in some of the texts above quoted:

b. or he may have credendi animus, Cod. 8, 42, 5:

c. or he may have donandi animus: Ut mihi donares, creditori meo, delegante me, promisisti, Dig. 39, 5, 21.

If both Delegans was indebted to the Delegatee and Delegatus to Delegans, there are two novations: if only one was indebted there is one novation, if neither was indebted, the Delegation involves no novation.

In Assignatio Assignans orders Assignatus not, as in Delegatio, to promise but to pay a sum to the Assignatee. The relations between the parties to an Assignatio are as various as those we have indicated between the parties to a Delegatio. Until payment, Assignans has a power of revoking the order, and Assignatus may disobey the order: hence the maxim: Assignation is not payment. But when payment is once made it produces novation and other effects similar to those that are produced by Delegatio. Baron, Pandekten, § 307.

Possibly Dig. 46, 2, 11, pr., in accordance with the original version, contemplates a double delegation: i.e. a proceeding in which the ultimate promisee is not the person whom we have called Delegatarius or Delegatee but a fourth person, Delegatarius of Delegatarius primus, to whom Delegatarius primus may have the intention solvendi or credendi or donandi.

If Delegatarius primus is indebted to this fourth person, this debt will be novated: so that if Delegatus was indebted to Delegator and Delegator to Delegatarius primus, there are three novations.

Similarly Assignatio may be double: the ultimate payee may be a fourth person, Assignatarius of Assignatarius primus, a creditor, borrower, or donee of the first Assignatarius; if he is not, as in the

following example, a mere hand or instrument (son, slave, or agent) by whom the first Assignatarius receives payment.

We know that Cicero pater supplied Cicero filius when a student at Athens with money by the mediation of his friend Atticus who, as publican, had debtors in Greece. The procedure would be as follows:

Atticus (A, assignator) at the request of Cicero pater (C, assignatarius primus), orders Graeculus (B, assignatus) to pay to Cicero filius (D, assignatarius secundus) what Atticus owes to Cicero pater. The payment by Graeculus to Assignatarius secundus, D, discharges the debt of Graeculus to Atticus, the debt of Atticus to Cicero pater, and if D were an independent person, creditor of Cicero pater, the debt of Cicero pater to D.

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The translation of 3 § 174 supposes a recital by Gaius of the formula employed in the discharge of the ancient contract of Nexum as well as that employed in the discharge of a judgment debtor from his obligation under a judgment. But Nexum had been so long obsolete that Gaius can hardly have thought it necessary to mention its formula; and doubtless the present paragraph treated solely of the release of judicatus. The words: Si quid eo nomine debeatur quod per aes et libram gestum est, § 173, which suggest a notice of Nexum, refer not to Nexum proper but to legatum per damnationem, an obligation imposed by a mancipatory or Nexumlike will: and the formula for releasing this is given, § 175.

What then, assuming (what is doubtful) that we have the true reading of the text, is the meaning of the last words of the formula for releasing a judgment debt: lege jure obligatur? In the lex Julia municipalis (Tabula Heracleensis) the words: si is jure lege damnatus esset, are explained by Savigny as equivalent to: si is judicio legitimo (3 § 180) damnatus esset, Vermischte Schriften 34, p. 387. But in the well known fragment of the Twelve Tables: rebusque jure judicatis, jure is equivalent to legis actione. The words: lege jure obligatur, then, at the close of the formula may be supposed to denote a debt created either by statute-process (legis actio) or by statutory suit (judicium legitimum): and we may imagine that no obligation of a less primitive character would require to be released by the formality of nexi liberatio.

APPENDIX.

THE following list of passages shows the extent to which I have deviated from the text of Gaius as published by Gneist.

1 § 123. Si tamen quaerat aliquis, quare a coemptione differat mancipatio,' is the reading of Rossbach for 'Si tamen quaerat aliquis, quare citra coemptionem feminae etiam mancipentur.'

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1 § 134. aut non remancipatur patri sed ei qui adoptat in jure ceditur ab eo apud quem in tertia mancipatione est,' is substantially the conjecture of Scheurl for aut jure mancipatur patri adoptivo vindicanti filium ab eo apud quem is tertia mancipatione est,' and later in the same paragraph aut non remancipantur' is for 'aut jure mancipantur.'

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1 § 136. Eae vero mulieres quae in manum conveniunt per coemptionem,' is the reading of Huschke for Sed mulieres quae coemptionem fecerunt per mancipationem.'

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2 § 155. Velut si ex eo quod Latinus adquisierit, locupletior factus sit,' is the conjecture of Savigny for Velut si Latinus adquisierit, locupletior factus sit.'

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2 § 235. sed et [si quis] si heres verbi gratia intra biennium monumentum sibi non fecerit, x Titio dari jusserit, poenae nomine legatum est,' is the conjecture of Goeschen for 'sed et si heres,' &c.

3 § 79. 'si vero mortui per dies xv. postea jubet convenire creditores,' is the reading of Huschke for 'si vero mortui, post dies XV postea jubet convenire creditores.' And later in the same paragraph 'itaque si vivi bona veneant, in diebus a legem bonorum vendendorum fieri jubet, si mortui, in diebus v. a quibus tandem vivi bona die xx, mortui vero die x emptori addici jubet,' is the reading of Huschke for itaque si vivi bona veneant in diebus pluribus veniri jubet, si mortui, in diebus paucioribus; nam vivi bona xxx, mortui vero xx emptori addici jubet.'

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4 § 48. '[sed],' which several critics propose to insert before ' aestimata,' is omitted by Gneist.

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4 § 166. et uter eorum vicerit fructus licitando, is tantisper in possessione constituitur, si modo adversario suo fructuaria stipulatione caverit, cuius vis et potestas haec est, ut si contra eum de possessione pronuntiatum fuerit, eam summam adversario solvat' is the restoration of Krueger. Gneist reads: Postquam igitur Praetor interdictum reddidit, primum litigatorum alterutrius res ab eo fructum licitando rei tantisper in possessione constituitur, si modo adversario suo fructuaria stipulatione satisdet cuius potestas haec est, ut si contra ipsum esset postea pronuntiatum, fructus duplam praestet.' 4 § 170. See p. 640.

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