Julianus, Digest, Book LXXXVI. But if in the first suit an estimate of his value was made, and afterwards the slave should die, his owner can bring an action for killing him, and if he is met with an exception based on malicious fraud, measures should be taken to prevent the plaintiff from recovering more by both suits than he would have obtained if he had in the beginning brought an action for killing the slave.

Julianus, Digest, Book LXXXVI. Ad Dig. 9,2,51 pr.Windscheid: Lehrbuch des Pandektenrechts, 7. Aufl. 1891, Bd. II, § 258, Note 15.A slave was so seriously wounded that it was certain that he would die from the blow; but, in the meantime, he was appointed an heir, and afterwards died from a blow inflicted by another. I ask whether an action for causing his death can be brought under the Lex Aquilia against both the parties who injured him? The answer was that anyone is ordinarily said to have killed who in any way furnished the cause of death; but under the Lex Aquilia he alone is held to be liable who furnished the cause of death by actual violence, and, as it were, with his own hand, the interpretation of the word “occidere” being derived from the terms “cædere” and “cædes”. Moreover, not only those who have wounded a slave so badly as to immediately deprive him of life are held to be liable under the Lex Aquilia, but also those who have inflicted such a wound that it is certain that the slave will die hereafter. Therefore, where anyone inflicts a mortal wound upon a slave, and another, before his death, strikes him in such a way that he dies sooner than he otherwise would as the result of a first wound, it should be held that both offenders are liable under the Lex Aquilia. 1This agrees with the opinion of the ancient authorities, who, where a slave was badly wounded by several persons and it was not ascertained by whose blow he died; it has been decided that all of them are liable under the Lex Aquilia. 2Ad Dig. 9,2,51,2Windscheid: Lehrbuch des Pandektenrechts, 7. Aufl. 1891, Bd. II, § 258, Note 15.The damages for causing death will not be the same for both parties in this instance; for the one who first wounded him must pay an amount equal to the greatest value of the slave during the past year; and this is ascertained by computing three hundred and sixty five days from the date of the wound. The second one would be liable for an amount equal to the largest sum which the slave would have brought during the year before the day on which he died, and this will also include the value of the estate. Hence one of them will pay a larger amount and the other a smaller amount for having killed the same slave; and there is nothing surprising in this, since both parties are held to have killed the slave in different ways and at different times. If anyone should think that this decision of ours is absurd, let him reflect that it would be still more absurd for it to be held that neither of the parties was liable under the Lex Aquilia, or that one of them was more liable than the other; since offences must not go unpunished; nor is it easy to determine which one is more liable under the law. For numerous rules have been established by the Civil Law for the public welfare which are at variance with the principles of reasoning, as can be proved by innumerable examples; and I shall be content with referring to only one of them. Where several persons carry away a beam belonging to another with the intention of stealing it, which they could not have done singly, they are all held to be liable to an action for theft; although by an ingenious argument not one of them can be said to be liable because it is true that not one of them carried off the beam.

Julianus, Digest, Book LXXXVI. A ship beaten by a storm and with her rigging, mast, and yards burned by lightning, was carried into Hippo. Having been provided while there with a hasty and temporary equipment, she sailed for Ostia, and discharged her cargo uninjured. The question was asked whether those to whom the cargo belonged were obliged to contribute to the master of the ship in proportion to the loss? The answer was that they were not obliged to do so, as the expense was incurred rather for the purpose of equipping the ship, than to preserve the cargo.

Julianus, Digest, Book LXXXVI. There is no doubt that a woman whom I have married can be prosecuted for adultery committed during her first marriage, as it is clearly provided by the Julian Law for the punishment of adultery that, if proceedings for this offence are brought against a woman who is a widow, the accuser has the choice of accusing either the adulterer or adulteress first, whichever he prefers; but if the woman is married, he must first prosecute the adulterer and then the woman.

Julianus, Digest, Book LXXXVI. The Senate remitted the penalty in the case of a person charged with the payment of legacies who had taken them away by a codicil written in his own hand. But because this had been done by the order of his father, and he was under twenty-five years of age, he was also permitted to take the estate.