or abuse of the right of property is seldom
indulged: it was introduced at Athens by the laws of Solon; and the
private testaments of the father of a family are authorized by the
Twelve Tables. Before the time of the decemvirs, a Roman citizen exposed
his wishes and motives to the assembly of the thirty curiae or parishes,
and the general law of inheritance was suspended by an occasional act
of the legislature. After the permission of the decemvirs, each private
lawgiver promulgated his verbal or written testament in the presence of
five citizens, who represented the five classes of the Roman people; a
sixth witness attested their concurrence; a seventh weighed the copper
money, which was paid by an imaginary purchaser; and the estate was
emancipated by a fictitious sale and immediate release. This singular
ceremony, which excited the wonder of the Greeks, was still practised in
the age of Severus; but the praetors had already approved a more simple
testament, for which they required the seals and signatures of seven
witnesses, free from all legal exception, and purposely summoned for the
execution of that important act. A domestic monarch, who reigned
over the lives and fortunes of his children, might distribute their
respective shares according to the degrees of their merit or his
affection; his arbitrary displeasure chastised an unworthy son by the
loss of his inheritance, and the mortifying preference of a stranger.
But the experience of unnatural parents recommended some limitations of
their testamentary powers. A son, or, by the laws of Justinian, even a
daughter, could no longer be disinherited by their silence: they were
compelled to name the criminal, and to specify the offence; and the
justice of the emperor enumerated the sole causes that could justify
such a violation of the first principles of nature and society. Unless
a legitimate portion, a fourth part, had been reserved for the children,
they were entitled to institute an action or complaint of _inofficious_
testament; to suppose that their father's understanding was impaired by
sickness or age; and respectfully to appeal from his rigorous sentence
to the deliberate wisdom of the magistrate. In the Roman jurisprudence,
an essential distinction was admitted between the inheritance and the
legacies. The heirs who succeeded to the entire unity, or to any of the
twelve fractions of the substance of the testator, represented his civil
and religious character,