3 cuius iuri subiecta est. Praeferuntur autem matri liberi defuncti, qui sui sunt quive suorum loco, sive primi gradus sive ulterioris. sed et filiae suae mortuae filius vel filia opponitur ex constitutionibus matri defunctae, id est aviae suae. pater quoque utriusque, non etiam avus vel proavus matri anteponitur, scilicet cum inter eos solos de hereditate agitur. frater autem consanguineus tam filii quam filiae excludebat matrem: soror autem consanguinea pariter cum matre admittebatur: sed si fuerat frater et soror consanguinei et mater liberis honorata, frater quidem matrem excludebat, communis autem erat hereditas ex aequis partibus fratri et 4 sorori. Sed nos constitutione, quam in codice nostro nomine decorato posuimus, matri subveniendum esse existimavimus, respicientes ad naturam et puerperium et periculum et saepe mortem ex hoc casu matribus illatam. ideoque impium esse credidimus casum fortuitum in eius admitti detrimentum : si enim ingenua ter vel libertina quater non peperit, immerito defraudabatur successione suorum liberorum: quid enim peccavit, si non plures, sed paucos pepererit? et dedimus ius legitimum plenum matribus sive ingenuis sive libertinis, etsi non ter enixae fuerint vel quater, sed eum tantum vel eam, qui quaeve morte intercepti sunt, ut et sic vocentur in libe5 rorum suorum legitimam successionem. Sed cum antea constitutiones iura legitima perscrutantes partim matrem adiuvabant, partim eam praegravabant et non in solidum eam vocabant, sed in quibusdam casibus tertiam partem ei

entitled as parens manumissor or as bonorum possessor cum re, Ulpian, reg. 26. 8.

The following changes were made in the mother's rights in the intermediate period before Justinian's own settlement of the law. Constantine enacted that a mother with ius liberorum should not only divide the succession with the soror consanguinea of the deceased, but should also lose a third of it in favour of his or her agnatic uncle (patruus) and his issue to the second degree, irrespective of capitis deminutio. He further conferred on mothers without the ius liberorum a right of succession to a third of a deceased child's property, the residue going to the nearest agnate or agnates; this third was doubled by Theodosius and Valentinian, who also gave a third to the deceased's emancipated brothers, whom previously the mother had altogether excluded.

§§ 4, 5. Justinian abolished the ius liberorum, along with the deduc

abstrahentes certis legitimis dabant personis, in aliis autem contrarium faciebant: nobis visum est recta et simplici via matrem omnibus legitimis personis anteponi et sine ulla deminutione filiorum suorum successionem accipere, excepta fratris et sororis persona, sive consanguinei sint sive sola cognationis iura habentes, ut quemadmodum eam toto alio ordini legitimo praeposuimus, ita omnes fratres et sorores, sive legitimi sint sive non, ad capiendas hereditates simul vocemus, ita tamen ut, si quidem solae sorores cognatae vel adgnatae et mater defuncti vel defunctae supersint, dimidiam quidem mater, alteram vero dimidiam partem omnes sorores habeant, si vero matre superstite et fratre vel fratribus solis vel etiam cum sororibus sive legitima sive sola cognationis iura habentibus intestatus quis vel intestata moriatur, in capita distribuatur eius hereditas. Sed quemadmodum nos matribus 6 prospeximus, ita eas oportet suae suboli consulere: scituris eis, quod, si tutores liberis non petierint vel in locum remoti vel excusati intra annum petere neglexerint, ab eorum impuberum morientium successione merito repellentur. Licet 7 autem vulgo quaesitus sit filius filiave, potest ad bona eius. mater ex Tertulliano senatus consulto admitti.

tions made in favour of certain other relations which are noticed on § 3, and preferred the mother to all other legitimi, except that brothers and sisters shared the inheritance with her; if there were brothers only, or brothers and sisters, it was divided in capita between them and the mother; if sisters only, they together and the mother took in moieties. By Nov. 22. 47 Justinian enacted that even where there were sisters only the division should be in capita.

§ 6. This rule originated in an epistola of Septimius Severus, extant in Dig. 26. 6. 2. 2.

Tit. IV. Under the law of the Twelve Tables the children of a woman who died intestate had no claim to succeed her whatever; they were neither sui nor her agnates (unless indeed she was in manu mariti, in which case she could leave no property to inherit). The praetor admitted them to bonorum possessio in the third (practically second) rank only, postponing them to their mother's agnates, Gaius ii. 30; the SC. Orfitianum, A.D. 178 ('Antonini et Commodi oratione' Ulpian, reg. 26. 7, cf. Capitolinus Marc. 11), gave them a statutory title in preference to all agnates (Ulpian, loc. cit.), admitting, however, the woman's patronus, if she were liberta, to a share equivalent to that taken by each child, Dig. 38. 17. 1. 9.

A a

IV.

DE SENATUS CONSULTO ORFITIANO.

Per contrarium autem ut liberi ad bona matrum intestatarum admittantur, senatus consulto Orfitiano effectum est, quod latum est Orfito et Rufo consulibus, divi Marci temporibus. et data est tam filio quam filiae legitima hereditas, etiamsi alieno iuri subiecti sunt: et praeferuntur et con1 sanguineis et adgnatis defunctae matris. Sed cum ex hoc senatus consulto nepotes ad aviae successionem legitimo iure non vocabantur, postea hoc constitutionibus principalibus emendatum est, ut ad similitudinem filiorum filiarumque et 2 nepotes et neptes vocentur. Sciendum autem est huiusmodi successiones, quae a Tertulliano et Orfitiano deferuntur, capitis deminutione non peremi propter illam regulam, qua novae hereditates legitimae capitis deminutione non pereunt, sed illae solae quae ex lege duodecim tabularum deferuntur. Novissime sciendum est etiam illos liberos, qui vulgo 3 quaesiti sunt, ad matris hereditatem ex hoc senatus consulto admitti.

4

Si ex pluribus legitimis heredibus quidam omiserint he

§ 1. The enactments referred to are those already cited and summarised on Tit. I. 15 supr.

§ 2. Justinian is here speaking of capitis deminutio minima only; the child's right to succeed was based on natural cognation, and in Bk. i. 16. 6 supr. he says 'quod autem dictum est manere cognationis ius et post capitis deminutionem, hoc ita est, si minima capitis deminutio interveniat,' and in the Digest (38. 17. 1. 8) Ulpian, speaking of succession under this SC., says 'sive quis ante delatam capite minuitur, ad legitimam hereditatem admittetur, nisi magna capitis deminutio interveniat, quae vel civitatem adimit, ut puta, si deportetur.' The 'illa regula' is rather too widely stated, as there were some cases in which bonorum possessio unde liberi was lost by capitis deminutio, Dig. 38. 6. 9.

§ 3. Cf. Tit. 3. 7 supr. and Cod. 6. 57. 5 (Justinian) 'sancimus . . . ut neque ex testamento, neque ab intestato, neque ex liberalitate inter vivos habita, iustis liberis existentibus, aliquid ab illustribus matribus ad spurios perveniat. Sin autem concubina liberae condicionis constituta filium vel filiam, ex licita consuetudine ab homine libero habita, procreaverit, eos etiam cum legitimis liberis ad materna venire bona... nulla dubitatio est.'

§ 4. The law of accrual among joint heirs ab intestato differed accord

reditatem vel morte vel alia causa impediti fuerint quominus adeant: reliquis qui adierint adcrescit illorum portio et, licet ante decesserint qui adierint, ad heredes tamen eorum pertinet.

V.

DE SUCCESSIONE COGNATORUM.

Post suos heredes eosque, quos inter suos heredes praetor et constitutiones vocant, et post legitimos (quo numero sunt adgnati et hi, quos in locum adgnatorum tam supra dicta senatus consulta quam nostra erexit constitutio) proximos cognatos praetor vocat. Qua parte naturalis cognatio spec- 1 tatur. nam adgnati capite deminuti quique ex his progeniti sunt ex lege duodecim tabularum inter legitimos non habentur, sed a praetore tertio ordine vocantur, exceptis solis tantummodo fratre et sorore emancipatis, non etiam liberis eorum, quos lex Anastasiana cum fratribus integri iuris constitutis vocat quidem ad legitimam fratris hereditatem sive sororis, non aequis tamen partibus, sed cum aliqua deminutione, quam facile est ex ipsius constitutionis verbis colligere, aliis

ing to the mode of division. If this was per capita, all the joint heirs who took benefited equally by the refusal or inability of those who did not; if it was per stirpes, the accrual enured primarily to the benefit only of those who belonged to the same stirps with them that had failed, Dig. 37. 4. 12. pr., others gained only if there was no one left of that stirps to take.

Tit. V. Failing sui and the nearest agnate, the Twelve Tables had given the inheritance to the gentiles of the deceased; 'si adgnatus nec escit, gentilis familiam nancitor.' In iii. 17 Gaius alludes to a definition of gentiles in an earlier part of his work, which, however, has been lost, and the best account we have of them is that of Cicero, Top. 6, cited by Mr. Poste in his note on the passage of Gaius referred to. Who they were precisely is of no practical importance, for Gaius observes that even in his day the whole of the law relating to the subject was obsolete, 'totum gentilicium ius in desuetudinem abiisse.' There was in fact no longer any civil law successor to an intestate in default of sui and agnates; the gap was filled by the praetor, who through the system of bonorum possessio substituted for the gentiles a third order of claimants, ranking after liberi and legitimi, viz. the deceased cognates or next of kin, in their several degrees of proximity. Between two or more cognates related in the same degree the division was always in capita. § 1. For the lex Anastasiana see (3), note on Tit. 2. 4 supr. By capitis

vero adgnatis inferioris gradus, licet capitis deminutionem passi non sunt, tamen eos anteponit et procul dubio 2 cognatis. Hos etiam, qui per feminini sexus personas ex transverso cognatione iunguntur, tertio gradu proximitatis 3 nomine praetor ad successionem vocat. Liberi quoque,

qui in adoptiva familia sunt, ad naturalium parentum here4 ditatem hoc eodem gradu vocantur. Vulgo quaesitos nullum habere adgnatum manifestum est, cum adgnatio a patre, cognatio sit a matre, hi autem nullum patrem habere intelleguntur. eadem ratione nec inter se quidem possunt videri consanguinei esse, quia consanguinitatis ius species est adgnationis: tantum igitur cognati sunt sibi, sicut et matris cognatis. itaque omnibus istis ea parte competit bonorum possessio, qua proximitatis nomine cognati vocantur. 5 Hoc loco et illud necessario admonendi sumus adgnationis quidem iure admitti aliquem ad hereditatem et si decimo gradu sit, sive de lege duodecim tabularum quaeramus, sive de edicto quo praetor legitimis heredibus daturum se bonorum possessionem pollicetur. proximitatis vero nomine his solis praetor promittit bonorum possessionem, qui usque ad sextum gradum cognationis sunt, et ex septimo a sobrino sobrinaque

nato nataeve.

VI.

DE GRADIBUS COGNATIONIS.

Hoc loco necessarium est exponere, quemadmodum gradus cognationis numerentur. qua in re inprimis admonendi sumus cognationem aliam supra numerari, aliam infra, aliam ex transverso, quae etiam a latere dicitur. superior cognatio est parentium, inferior liberorum, ex transverso fratrum sororumve

deminutio in this section is of course meant only capitis deminutio minima.

§ 2. The praetor had also admitted persons related directa linea through females among cognati; but by the SC. Tertullianum and Orfitianum and their developments these had been raised to the rank legitimi, of hence 'ex transverso' in the text.

§ 3. This refers of course only to adrogatio and adoptio plena; if it were minus plena the adoptatus succeeded to his natural father in the first order (liberi); see on Tit. 1. 14 supr.