testato ad patris adoptivi venire successionem. Testamento autem ab eo facto, neque jure civili, néque prætori, ex hæreditate ejus aliquid persequi potest, neque contra tabulas bonorum possessione agnitâ, neque inofficiosi querelâ institutâ; cum nec necessitas patri adoptivo imponatur, vel hæredem eum instituere, vel exhæredem facere, utpote nullo vinculo naturali copulatum; neque si ex Sabiniano senatus-consulto ex tribus maribus fuerit adoptatus: nam, et in ejusmodi casu, neque quarta ei servatur, neque ullo actio ad ejus persecutionem ei competit. Nostrâ autem constitutione exceptus est is, quem parens naturalis adoptandum susceperit. Utroque enim jure, tam naturali quam legitimo, in hanc personam concurrente, pristina jura tali adoptioni servamus; quemadmodùm si pater-familias sese dederit arrogandum: quæ specialitèr et singulatim ex præfatæ constitutionis tenore possunt colligi.

person adopted may succeed to his adoptor, if he die intestate. But, if the adoptor make a will and omit to name his adopted son, such son can neither by the civil nor the prætorian law obtain any part of the inheritance, whether he demand possession of the effects, contra tabulas, (contrary to the letter of the testament,) or allege that the testament is inofficious: for an adoptor is under no obligation to institute, or disinherit his adopted son, there being no natural tie between them. Nor can the adopted person, claim under the Sabinian senatus-consulto, by being one of three sons: for in this case he can neither obtain the fourth part of his adoptive father's effects, nor be intitled to any action upon that account. But persons adopted by their natural parents, (i. e. by a grand-father or great-grand-father, &c.) are excepted in our constitution: for, as such persons are united together by the concurrence both of natural and civil rights, we have thought proper to retain the old law in relation to those adoptions; in the same manner, as when the father of a family hath given himself in arrogation. But all this, may be collected from the tenor of the above-mentioned constitution.

§ XV. Item vetustas, ex masculis progenitos plus diligens, solos nepotes vel neptes, qui quæve ex virili sexu descendunt, ad suorum vocabat successionem, et jure agnatorum eos anteponebat; nepotes

15. The ancient law, preferring descendants from males, called only grand-children so descended, to the succession as proper heirs, by right of agnation; reputing grandchildren born of daughters, and

autem, qui ex filiabus nati sunt, et pronepotes, qui ex neptibus, cognatorum loco connumerans, post agnatorum lineam eos vocabat, tam in avi vel proavi materni, quam in aviæ vel proaviæ, sivè paternæ sivè maternæ, successionem. Divi autèm principes non passi sunt talem contra naturam injuriam sinè competenti emendatione relinquere sed, cum nepotis et pronepotis nomen commune sit utrisque, tam qui ex masculis, quam qui ex fœminis descendunt, ideò eundem gradum et ordinem successionis eis donaverunt. Sed, ut ampliùs aliquid sit eis, qui non solùm naturæ, sed etiam veteris juris, suffragiis muniuntur, portionem nepotum vel neptum, vel deinceps, (de quibus supra diximus) paulò minuendam esse existimaverunt ; ut minus tertiâ parte acciperent, quam mater eorum, vel avia, fuerat acceptura, vel pater eorum vel avus, paternus sivè maternus, quando fœmina mortua sit, cujus de hæreditate agitur; iisque, licèt soli sint, adeuntibus, agnatos minimè vocabant. Et, quemadmodùm lex duodecim tabularum, filio mortuo, nepotes, vel neptes, pronepotes vel proneptes, in locum patris sui ad successionem avi sui vocat ; ita et principalis dispositio in locum matris suæ vel aviæ eos, cum jam designatâ partis tertiæ diminutione, vocat. Sed nos, cum adhuc dubitatio maneret inter agnatos et memoratos nepotes, quartam partem substantiæ defuncti agnatis sibi vin

great-grand-children born of granddaughters, to be cognates, and prohibiting them from succeeding to their grand-father and great-grand. father, maternal or paternal, until after the line of agnati was exhausted. But the emperors Valentinian, Theodosius and Arcadius, would not continue such a violence against nature; and, inasmuch as the name of grand-child and great-grandchild, is common, as well to descendants by females, as by males, they granted an equal right of succession in either case. But, to the end, that those persons who have been favoured by nature, as well as by the suffrage of antiquity, might enjoy some peculiar privileges, they thought it right, that the portions of grand-children, great-grand-children, and other lineal descendants of a female, should be somewhat diminished, and therefore they have not permitted such persons to receive so much by a third part, as their mother or grand-mother would have received; or their father or grandfather, paternal or maternal, at the decease of a female; for we now treat of inheritances, derived from a female; and, although there were only grand-children by a female to take an inheritance, yet the emperors did not call the agnates to the succession. And as, upon the decease of a son, the law of the twelve tables calls the grand-children, and great-grand-children, male and female to represent their father as to the succession of their grand-father,

dicantibus ex cujusdam constitutionis auctoritate, memoratam quidem constitutionem à nostro codice segregavimus, neque inseri eam ex Theodosiano codice in eo concessimus. Nostrâ autem constitutione promulgatâ, toti juri ejus derogatum est: et sanximus, talibus nepotibus ex filiâ, vel pronepotibus ex nepte, vel deinceps superstitibus, agnatos nullam partem mortui successionis sibi vindicare; ne hi, qui ex transversâ lineâ veniunt, potiores his habeantur, qui recto jure descendunt. Quam constitutionem nostram obtinere secundùm sui vigorem et tempora et nunc sancimus: ita tamen ut, quemadmodùm inter filios et nepotes ex filio antiquatas statuit, non in capita, sed in stirpes, dividi hæreditatem, similitèr nos, inter filios et nepotes ex filiâ, distributionem fieri jubeamus, vel inter omnes nepotes et neptes, et inter pronepotes vel proneptes, et alias deinceps, personas; ut utraque progenies matris vel patris, aviæ vel avi, portionem sine ullâ diminutione consequatur: ut, si fortè unus vel duo ex unâ parte, ex alterâ tres aut quatuor extent unus aut duo dimidiam,

so the imperial ordinance calls them to succession in the place of their mother or grand-mother, with the before-regulated diminution of a third part of their share. But as there still remained matter of dispute between the agnati and the above named grand-children, the agnati claiming the fourth part of the estate of the deceased by virtue of a certain constitution, we have therefore not permitted it to be inserted into our code from that of Theodosius. And further we have altered the old law by enacting that agnates shall not be entitled to any part of the goods of the deceased, while grand-children born of a daughter, or great-grand-children born of a grand-daughter, or any other descendants from a female in the right line, are living; lest those, who proceed from the transverse line, should be preferred to lineal descendants. And we now decree, that this our ordinance shall obtain according to its full tenor. But as the old law ordered, that every inheritance should be divided in stirpes and not in capita, between the son of the deceased and his grandsons by a son, so we also ordain,

fratres, agnati sibi sunt; qui et consanguinei vocantur: nec requiritur, an etiam eandem matrem habuerint. Item patruus fratris filio, et invicem is illi, agnatus est. Eodem numero sunt fratres patrueles, id est, qui ex duobus fratribus procreati sunt qui etiam consobrini vocantur. Quâ ratione etiam ad plures gradus agnationis pervenire poterimus. Ii etiam, qui post mortem patris nascuntur, jura consanguinitatis nasciscuntur. Non tamen omnibus simul agnatis dat lex hæreditatem; sed iis, qui tunc proximiore gradu sunt, cum certum esse cœperit, aliquem intestatum decessisse.