quivè post mortem naturalis parentis ab adoptivo patre emancipati fuerint, intestato parente naturali mortuo, licet ea parte edicti, quâ liberi ad bonorum possessionem vocantur, non admittantur, aliâ tamen parte vocari, scilicèt, quà cognati defuncti vocantur. Ex quâ ita admittuntur, si neque sui hæredes liberi, neque emancipati obstent, neque agnatus quidem ullus interveniat. Antè enim prætor liberos vocat, tam suos hæredes quam emancipatos, deinde legitimos hæredes, tertio proximos cognatas. were in an adoptive family, but have been emancipated by their adoptive father, after the decease of their natural father, dying intestate, are not admitted by that part of the edict, by which children are called to the possession of goods, yet they are admitted by another part, by which the cognates of the deceased are called to the possession of his effects. But, by this last-named part of the edict, the cognates are only called when there is no opposition from proper heirs, emancipated children, or agnates: for the prætor first calls the proper heirs with the emancipated children, then the agnates, and lastly the nearest cognates. Emendatio juris antiqui. XIV. Sed ea omnia antiquitati placuerunt: aliquam autèm emendationem à nostrâ constitutione acceperunt, quam super iis personis exposuimus, quæ à patribus suis naturalibus in adoptionem aliis dantur: invenimus etenim nonnullos casus, in quibus filii et naturalium successionem propter adoptionem amittebant, et adoptione facilè per emancipationem solutâ, ad neutrius patris successionem vocabantur. Hoc, solito more, corrigentes, constitutionem scripsimus, per quam definimus, quandò parens naturalis filium suum adoptandum alii dederit, integra omnia jure ita servari, atque si in patris naturalis potestate permansisset, nec penitùs adoptio fuisset subsecuta; nisi in hoc tantummodò casu, ut possit ab in De adoptivis. 14. Such were the rules that formerly obtained; but they have received some emendation from our constitution, relating to persons given in adoption by their natural parents: for we have remarked instances of sons, who by adoption have lost their succession to their natural parents, and who, by the ease with which adoption is dissolved by emancipation, have also lost the right of succeeding to their adoptive parents. We therefore, as usual, correcting what is amiss, have enacted that, when a natural father hath given his son in adoption, the rights of the son shall be preserved intire, as though he had still remained under the power of his natural father, and there had been no adoption; except only, that the person adopted may succeed to his testato ad patris adoptivi venire successionem. Testamento autem ab eò facto, neque jure civili, neque prætori, ex hæreditate ejus aliquid persequi potest, neque contrà tabulas bonorum possessione agnitâ, neque inofficiósi querela institută; 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 ulla actio ad ejus persecution em 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. 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 posses sion of the effects, contra tabulas, (contrary to the letter of the testament,) or alledge 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-consultum, 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-fa-` ther, &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. De descentibus ex fœminis. § 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, prefere ring 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 sive 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 étiam 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 hereditate 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-grandfather, 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 grandchildren, 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 orgrundmother would have received; their father or grand-father, paternal or maternal, at the decease of a female; for we now treat of inheritances, derived from a female; and, although there were only grandchildren 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-grandchildren, male and female, to represent their father as to the succession of their grand-father, so the impeD D or dicantibus ex cujusdam constitutionis auctoritate, memoratam quidem constitutionem à nostro codice segregavimus, neque inseri eam ex Theodosiano codice in eo concessimus. Nostra autem constitutione promulgata, toti juri ejus derogatum est: et sanximus, talibus nepotibus ex filia, vel pronepotibus ex nepte, vel deinceps superstitibus, agnatos nullam partem mortui successionis sibi vindicare; ne hi, qui ex transversa lineâ veniunt, potiores his habeantur, qui recio jure descendunt. Quam constitutionem nostram obtinere secundù sui vigorem et tempora et nunc sancimus: ita tamen ut, quemadmodùm inter filios et nepotes ex filio antiquitas 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 ulla diminutione consequatur: ut, si fortè urus vel duo ex una parte, ex altera tres aut quayor, extent unus aut duo dimidiam, rial ordinance calls them to succes, sion 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-grandchildren 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, that similar distribution shall be alteri tres aut quatuor alteram di- made between sons and grandmidiam, hæreditatis habeant. sons by a daughter, and between grand-sons and grand-daughters, great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, and all other descendants in a right line; so that the issue, either of a mother or a father, or of a grand-mother or a grand-father, may obtain their portions without any diminution; and, if on the one part there should be one ода two claimants, and on the other part three or four, that the greater number shall be intitled to one half, and the less number to the other half of the inheritance. TITULUS SECUNDUS. DE LEGITIMA AGNATORUM SUCCESSIONE. D. xxxviii. T. 16. C. vi. T. 58. Secundus ordo hæredum legitimorum. SI nemo suus hæres, vel eorum, quos inter suos hæredes prætor vel constitutiones vocant, existat, qui successionem quoquo modo amplectatur, tunc ex lege duodecim tabularum ad agnatum proximum pertinet hæreditas. When there is no proper heir nor any person, whom the prætor or the constitutions would call to inherit with proper heirs, then the inheri tance, by a law of the twelve tables, appertains to the nearest agnate. De agnatis naturalibus. § I. Sunt autèm agnati (ut primo quoque libro tradidimus) cognati per virilis sexùs personas cognatione conjuncti, quasi à patre connati Itaque ex eodem patre nati 1. Agnates, as we have observ ed in the first book, are those, who are related or cognated by males, (quasi à patre cognati:) and therefore brothers, who are the sons of |