concept
Lex necessitatis
lex necessitatis
also: закон необходимости, the law of necessity
A Latin legal tag ("the law of necessity") Chekhov quotes and glosses himself, attributing it jokingly to "the Romans," to excuse his reluctant attention to household business at Bogimovo instead of visiting Suvorin in Feodosia -- mock-erudite self-justification rather than a substantive citation of Roman law.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 29 July 1891. Bogimovo. §5 Necessity is the law. Even the Romans used to say -- lex necessitatis, that is, the law of necessity.
Chekhov quotes and immediately translates his own Latin tag, "lex necessitatis" (the law of necessity), a mock-erudite flourish excusing his reluctance to visit Suvorin in Feodosia -- household duty at Bogimovo takes precedence, dressed up in a scrap of half-remembered Roman legal phrasing rather than cited as genuine jurisprudence.