Ulpiano e l'idealtipo del delatore

The paper attempts to trace the thematic scope that originally framed the passage betrayed by D. 22.6.6, a fragment from the eighteenth book of the Ulpian commentary ad legem Iuliam et Papiam, put by the Justinian compilers under the rubric title “De iuris et facti ignorantia”. Moving from a note in Lenel’s Palingenesia, which invites comparison of the passage with Mauric. 3 ad l. Iul. et Pap., D. 49.14.15 pr., I try to decipher the cryptic Lenelian reference and shed light on the connection between the two texts. In my view, the link between the two jurisprudential places may lie in the theme of desistance from prosecution and the prerequisites for granting abolitio (as formalized by the SC. Turpillianum, in the comments offered by jurists on its provisions), within judgments having as their object vindicatio caducorum.