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[German version] In Roman law, any ‘acquisition mortis causa ’not based on succession or legacy (Inheritance law III. H.): (1) gift mortis causa ( donatio ); what someone (2) received in fulfilment of a condition of a will or (3) on the condition that a third party (not the executing party) would die, or in exchange (4) for waiving an acquisition under inheritance law or (5) for an application for provisional safeguarding of an estate in favour of an unborn child ( missio in possessionem ) (Dig. 39,6,38; 31 pr./2; 8 pr.; 12). Manthe, Ulrich (Passau) Bibliography Kaser, RPR 1, 765; 2, 567  P. Voci,…

[German version] The fideicommissum (literally: ‘entrusted to faith’), which from the 2nd cent. BC (Ter. Andr. 290-298) appeared alongside the legatum (legacy), was a request of the testator to an heir or legatee to pass on the inheritance in part or total to a third party. Since a fideicommissum was not subject to the same restrictions as the civil law of succession, it was used to make a bequest to a person who would otherwise not be eligible to be an heir or to receive a legacy (non-citizens; women according to the lex Voconia,  Laws of succession III. D.; the unmarried and the chil…

[German version] The lex Papia Poppaea (AD 9), by economic pressure, indirectly forced marriage and the having of children by taking away from unmarried persons the entire capability of inheriting ( capacitas) for a bequest that fell to them in the course of an inheritance, and half the ability to work for married couples without children; married partners amongst themselves had capacitas for one tenth only ( Decuma). The bequest fell, as caducum (‘forfeited’ possessions), to those men named in the testament who had children, otherwise (since Caracalla always) to t…

[German version] A person who died without leaving a valid testament. Under Roman ius civile the estate of the deceased firstly devolved upon the   sui heredes , or else upon the agnatic relatives of the next degree ( agnati proximi). According to the Law of the Twelve Tables (5th cent. AD), s ui became heredes in the case of succession, agnati only acquired property ( familia, XII 5.4) and became successors through   usucapio ; in classical Roman law (1st-3rd cent. AD) agnates became successors through   aditio hereditatis . From the 2nd cent. BC on, agnatic relat…

[German version] Siblings with a common father ( uterini share the mother). According to Roman civil law consanguine sisters had a legal right of inheritance while agnatic relatives of a higher degree of relationship (aunts, nieces etc.) were excluded from intestate inheritance (Gai. Inst. 3,14; Inst. Iust. 3,2,3a).  Agnatio;  Succession, law of Manthe, Ulrich (Passau) Bibliography H. L. W. Nelson, U. Manthe, Gai Institutiones III 1-87, 1992, 65f.

[German version] The revocation of a formal legacy, initially only by formal declaration ( non do; heres ne dato) in a will, from the 2nd cent. AD also possible by informal exercise of will (e.g. disposal of the object) (Dig. 34,4).  Legatum Manthe, Ulrich (Passau) Bibliography Kaser, RPR I, 755

[German version] (=  decima sc. pars). The law of Papia Poppaea (AD 9) limited to one-tenth of the inheritance (with additional allowances for children) the capacity ( capacitas) of spouses in manus-free marriage to inherit from the testament of another. A wife in manus- marriage was, however, sua heres entitled to inherit the entire estate [2].The limit was abolished in AD 410 (Cod. Iust. 8,57,2). Apart from inheritance law, the tithe occurs as subject of a vow (Varro, Ling. 6,54; Dig. 50,12,2,2) and as the tax on crops from provincial land [1].  Caducum Manthe, Ulrich (Passau) Bibliograp…

[German version] In the language of the XII Tables (7,3) the farmstead measuring two iugera (0.5 ha.; Plin. HN 19,4,50), consisting of a hortus (farm with garden, Paul Fest. 91,12 L.) and ager (agricultural land). Tradition has it that Romulus assigned to each citizen an inalienable heredium, which was passed on to the respective heir ( heres) (Varro Rust. 1,10,2); the XII Tables already allowed the entire property to be sold and inherited (6,1; 5,3), this therefore included the heredium. As a heredium was insufficient to sustain a large family with servants, Mommsen's assum…

[German version] A prodigus ('spendthrift') was placed by the Twelve Tablets (7,4c) under the care ( cura) of their closest agnates ( agnatio ) who were to administer his wealth, so that their future right of inheritance (inheritance law III. C.; intestatus ) should not be at risk. In the classical law of the 1st-3rd cents. AD, a prodigus would be equated with a minor under the protection of a guardian ( tutela ); a cura prodigi was now also arranged not only in the interests of the agnates but also for the protection of the prodigus. Manthe, Ulrich (Passau) Bibliography 1 Honsell/Mayer-Maly/Se…

[German version] [1] Roman praenomen Roman praenomen , like other numerical praenomina (Quintus) given to a child according to the order of his birth; the adjective postumus ('last') refers to the birth 'after the father's death' (cf. P. [2]). The use of the name as a praenomen is evident in Rome up to the 3rd cent. BC, after that only as a cognomen . The wider geographical spread of * Postumo- as an Italic personal name can be concluded from its Etruscan derivative, where it led to the formation of a nomen gentile, Pustmi-na- (CIE 8715), the equivalent to the Roman Postumius. Steinbauer, Dieter…

[German version] According to Roman law a suus heres acquired the inheritance left to him without any further action on his part, but an extraneus only on accession ( aditio). The aditio could take place by formal declaration of accession ( cretio) or by informal exercise of the will to accept ( pro herede gestio).  Succession, law of III B;  Abstentio Manthe, Ulrich (Passau) Bibliography 1 H. Honsell, Th. Mayer-Maly, W. Selb, Röm. Recht, 41987, 469 ff. 2 Kaser, RPR I, 715 ff.

[German version] In Roman law the relationship between persons who are under the manus or patria potestas of the same pater familias or would be if he were still alive (in other words were descended from him in a purely male line, not interrupted by emancipation, Gai. Inst. 1,156). Those persons subjected to this power, who on the death of their pater familias immediately became free from power ( sui iuris), formed the narrower circle of the   sui heredes ; a particular group of agnati were the   consanguinei . The agnatic system was the basis of the civil right of intestate inheritance. Agnati pr…

[German version] The last will and testament written down as an informal document. In a codicil, only individual instructions could be laid down, but not the appointment or removal of an heir. Codicils were valid as an amendment to a testament if their establishment was reserved in an earlier testament or confirmed in a later one ( c. testamento confirmati); non-confirmed codicils (intestate codicil) could only contain entails. A so-called codicillary clause of the content indicating that a testament should also be valid in case of formal errors, allowe…

[German version] 'Complaint because of a testament contrary to duty'. If, according to Roman law, a next-of-kin of a testator was effectively disinherited (Succession, laws of, III. E) or bequeathed less than one quarter of his legal share of the inheritance ( intestatus), and if he had not received this quarter through a bequest ( legatum, fideicommissum) or donation moved by the consideration of death ( donatio mortis causa), he could go before the centumviri or use the cognitio extra ordinem to demand the annulment of the testament by QIT against the testament's benefici…

[German version] In Roman law of succession the right to possession of a bequest, granted by the praetor. The bonorum possessor was not the heir by ius civile ( heres), but in certain cases could defend himself against inheritance actions by the heir (Gai. Inst. 3,35ff.). According to whether the praetor's opinion as to succession was based on statute, on the will itself or on special circumstances, distinctions were made between bonorum possessio intestati, secundum tabulas and contra tabulas.  Bona;  Succession, law of Manthe, Ulrich (Passau) Bibliography 1 H. Honsell, Th. Mayer…

[German version] Disinheritance. Archaic Roman law allowed the appointment of an inheritor in a will probably only when there was no suus heres (family heir). Later, it became possible to appoint one among several   sui heredes as an heir and to disinherit the rest. In the historical era there were no limits on the disinheritance of sui, but this had to be expressly stated in the will. Sons had to be disinherited by name, other sui (wife ─ uxor in manu ─, grandchildren, great-grandchildren etc. of both sexes) could be disinherited inter ceteros (as a group without stating their names); …

[German version] According to Roman law, the kinship established by a blood relationship, which also applies to non-agnates; the degree was determined by the number of mediated procreations or births. The cognatio gained legal importance with the lex Cincia (204 BC): the cognati up to the 6th degree of relationship ( sobrini, great grandchildren from the same great-grandfather) were exempted from this law's ban on gifts. The lex Furia (beginning of the 2nd cent. BC) exempted these cognati from its restrictions, as well as in the 7th degree the children of sobrini. Later, the praetor g…

[German version] In the mancipation will of Roman law ( Testament) the testator assigned his property by   mancipatio to a ‘purchaser of the family’ ( familiae emptor). The latter may possibly have acted as an executor in the archaic period but there is no reference to it in any of the sources [1. 108, 679; 3. 1014]. In Classical Roman law of the 1st-3rd cents. AD, execution of wills existed as a separate institution only in embryonic form: by   fideicommissum an heir or legatee might be obligated to release the estate or a portion of it to another party, or by instruction (  mandatum …

[German version] ( alicui rei, ‘to become involved in something’). A suus heres (immediate heir,  Succession, law of III A) could not effectively disclaim a legal or testamentary legacy according to  ius civile ( semel heres semper heres), but if he declared the disclaimer before the praetor, he was treated by the praetor as if he had not become the heir (  abstentio ). However, if he had once behaved outwardly like an heir ( se immiscere), he lost the  beneficium abstinendi. Se immiscere further designates the start of the discharge of other transactions. Only from the 4th cent. AD has se immi…

[German version] In Roman law, the legacy (from legare: ‘to pronounce a binding declaration of will’, lex ). The possibility of bequeathing someone property through testamentary disposition ( Will) to the detriment of the heir was acknowledged in the XII Tables (5,3). There were two main types: 1) By legatum per vindicationem (arranged by: Titio hominem Stichum do lego, ‘to Titius I give and bequeathe the slave Stichus’) the legatee acquired the ownership of the bequeathed object directly with the succession and was able to claim this object from the h…