- litèr contractâ fiduciâ parens manumisisset.

mong the ancients the parent was never called to the legitimate succession of his children, unless he had actually emancipated them under a fiduciary contract.

TITULUS TERTIUS.

DE SENATUS-CONSULTO TERTYLLIANO.

D. xxxviii. T. 17. C. vi. T. 56.

De lege duodecim tabularum et jure Prætorio.

LEX duodecim tabularum ita stricto jure utebatur, et præponebat masculorum progeniem; et eos, qui per fœminini sexûs necessitudinem sibi junguntur, adèo expellebat, ut ne quidem inter matrem et filium filiamve ultro citroque hæreditatis capiendæ jus daret; nisi quod prætores ex proximitate cognatorum eas personas ad successionem bonorum, possessione unde cog. nati accommodatâ, vocabant.

Such was the rigor of the law of the twelve tables, that it preferred the issue by males, and excluded those who were related by the female line, so that the right of succession was not permitted to take place reciprocally between a mother and her son, or a mother and her daughter. But the prætors, on account of the proximity of cognation, admitted those, who were related by the female line, to the succession, giving them the possession of goods, called unde cognati.

De constitutione Divi Claudii.

I. Sed hæ juris angustia postea emendatæ sunt; et primus quidem Divus Claudius matri, ad solatium liberorum amissorum, legitimam eorum detulit hæredita

tem.

$1. But these narrow limits of the law were afterwards enlarged by the emperor Claudius, who first gave the legal inheritance of deceased children to their mothers, in assuasion of their grief for so great a loss.

Ad Senatus-consultum Tertyllianum. De jure liberorum.

II. Postea autem senatus-consulto Tertylliano, quod Divi Adriani temporibus factum est, plenissimè de tristi successione matri, non etiam aviæ, deferenda cautum est; ut mater ingenua trium liberorum jus habens, libertina quatuor, ad bona filiorum filiarumve admittatur intestato mortuorum, licèt in potestate parentis sit; ut scilicèt, cum alieno juri subjecta est, jussu ejus adeat hæreditatem, cujus juri subjecta est.

$ 2. Afterwards by the Tertillian senatus consultum,made in the reign of the emperor Adrian, the fullest care was taken, that the succession of children should pass to their mother, though not to their grand-mother: so that a mother, born of free parents, and having the right of three children,-also a freed-woman, having the right of four children,may be admitted, although under power of a parent, to the goods of their intestate children. But, a mother under power cannot enter upon the inheritance of her children, but at the command of him, to whom she is subject.

Qui præferuntur matri, vel cum ea admittuntur.

§ III. Præferuntur autem matri, liberi defuncti, qui sui sunt, quive suorum loco sunt, sivè primi gradus, sivè ulterioris. Sed et filiæ suæ mortuæ filius vel filia præponitur, ex constitutionibus, matri defunctæ, id est, aviæ suæ. Pater verò utriusque, non etiam avus et proavus, matri anteponitur; scilicèt cum inter eos solos de hæreditate agitur. Frater autem consanguineus tam filii, quam filiæ, excludebat matrem; soror autem consanguinea paritèr cum matre admittebatur. Sed, si fuerant frater et soror consanguinei, et mater liberis onerata, frater quidem matrem excludebat; communis autem erat

$3. The children of a deceased son who are proper heirs, or in the place of proper heirs, either in the first or an inferior degree, are preferred to the mother. And the son, or daughter, of a deceased daughter is also by the constitutions preferred to the mother; i. e. to their grandmother. Also the father of a son, or daughter, is preferred to the mother; not so the grand-father or great-grand-father, when the inheritance is contended for by these only without the father. Also the consanguine brother either of a son or a daughter excluded the mother; but a consanguine sister was admitted equally with her mother. If

hæreditas ex æquis partibus fratri- there had be a brother and a sister bus et sororibus.

Jus novum de jure

IV. Sed nos constitutione, quam in codice, nostro nomine decorato, posuimus, matri subveniendum esse existimavimus, respicientes ad naturam, et puerperium, et periculum, et sæpè mortem ex hoc casu matribus illatam. Ideòque impium esse credidimus, casum fortuitum in ejus admitti detrimentum. Si enim ingenua ter, vel libertina quater, non pepererit, immeritò defraudabatur successione suorum liberorum. Quid Quid enim peccavit, si non plures, sed paucos, peperit? Et dedimus jus legitimum plenum matribus, sivè ingenuis sivè libertinis, etsi non ter enixæ fuerint vel quater, sed eum fantum vel eam, qui quæve morte intercepti sunt, ut sic vocentur in liberorum suorum legitimam successionem.

Quibus mater præponitur, SV. Sed, cum antea constitutiones, jura legitimæ successionis perscrutantes, partim matrem adjuvabant, partim eam prægravabant, nec in solidum eam vocabant, sed,

of the same blood with the deceased, the brother excluded his mother, although she had children: but the inheritance, in this case, was equally divided between brothers and sisters.

liberorum sublato.

$4. But by a constitution, inserted in the code, and honoured with our name, we have thought fit, that mothers should be favoured in regard to the considering natural reason, the pains of child-birth, the danger, and death itself, which they often suffer; we therefore have esteemed it highly unjust, that the law should make that detrimental, which is in its nature merely fortuitous; for, if a married woman freeborn, does not bring forth three children, or if a free-woman does not become the mother of four, ought they, for this reason only, to be deprived of succession to their children? for how can it be imputed to them, as a crime? We therefore, not regarding any fixed number of children, have given a full right to every mother, whether ingenuous or freed, of being called to the legitimate succession of her child or children deceased, whether male or female.

et quibuscum admittitur.

$5. In examining the constitutions of former emperors, relating to the right of succession, we observed that they were partly favourable to mothers and partly grievous; not

De tutore liberis petendo.

tium successione meritò repellen- dren, or to require a new tutor in

Origo et summa senatus-consulti.

PER contrarium autem liberi ad bona matrum intestatarum admittuntur ex senatus-consulto Orficiano, quod, Orficio et Rufo consulibus, effectum est Divi Marci temporibus; et data est tam filio quam filiæ, legitima hæreditas, etiamsi alieno juri subjecti sint; et præferuntur consanguineis et agratis defunctæ matris.

On the contrary children are admitted to the goods of their intestate mothers, by the Orfician senatusconsultum, which was enacted in the consulate of Orficius and Rufus, in the reign of the emperor Marcus Antoninus; and, by this decree, the legal inheritance is given both to sons and daughters, although under power; and they are preferred to the consanguine brothers, and to the agnates of their deceased mother.

De nepote et nepte.

I. Sed, cum ex hoc senatusconsulto nepotes et neptes ad aviæ successionem legitimo jure non vo

1. But, since grand-sons and grand-daughters were not called by the senutus-consultum to the legi