Il conflitto tra verba e mens legantis: riflessioni su Pomp. 4 ad Q. Muc. D. 34.2.33

This investigation concerns the well known case examined and solved by Pomponius in D. 34.2.33 4 ad Q. Muc. regarding a men’s clothing legacy made by a pater familias whose wardrobe also contains a garment ‘suitable for women too’. Hence the doubt whether this item of clothing should be included in the bequest. The answer given by Pomponius rests on an argumentum a contrario based on a specular case, likely found by the jurist himself in the work of Quintus Mucius, of a legacy of women’s garments made by a senator accustomed to wearing women’s dinner clothes. This essay aims, on the one hand, at integrating the juridical analysis formulated by Riccardo Astolfi between the late sixties and the early seventies of the 20th century (dedicating, for example, greater attention to the phrase the fragment opens with and producing other Latin sources supported by the most updated studies on both Roman law and classical antiquity) and, on the other hand, at strongly distancing itself from certain readings, which, by focusing only on the case of the senator, have ended up losing sight of the profound internal logical coherence between the two cases and their own solutions. Besides the exegesis here proposed will be permeated by social-historical and moral principles data related to Roman antiquity clothing which can contribute to clarify the material context of D. 34.2.33.