imperial legislation--and
affixed their seals, as had been required by the praetor's edict. Thus
the present law of testament seems to be derived from three distinct
sources; the witnesses, and the necessity of their all being present
continuously through the execution of the will in order that the
execution may be valid, coming from the civil law: the signing of
the document by the testator and the witnesses being due to imperial
constitutions, and the exact number of witnesses, and the sealing of the
will by them, to the praetor's edict.

4 An additional requirement imposed by our constitution, in order to
secure the genuineness of testaments and prevent forgery, is that
the name of the heir shall be written by either the testator or the
witnesses, and generally that everything shall be done according to the
tenor of that enactment.

5 The witnesses may all seal the testament with the same seal; for, as
Pomponius remarks, what if the device on all seven seals were the same?
It is also lawful for a witness to use a seal belonging to another
person.

6 Those persons only can be witnesses who are legally capable of
witnessing a testament. Women, persons below the age of puberty, slaves,
lunatics, persons dumb or deaf, and those who have been interdicted from
the management of their property, or whom the law declares worthless and
unfitted to perform this office, cannot witness a will.

7 In cases where one of the witnesses to a will was thought free at the
time of its execution, but was afterwards discovered to be a slave, the
Emperor Hadrian, in his rescript to Catonius Verus, and afterwards the
Emperors Severus and Antoninus declared that of their goodness they
would uphold such a will as validly made; for, at the time when it was
sealed, this witness was admitted by all to be free, and, as such, had
had his civil position called in question by no man.

8 A father and a son in his power, or two brothers who are both in the
power of one father, can lawfully witness the same testament, for there
can be no harm in several persons of the same family witnessing together
the act of a man who is to them a stranger.

9 No one, however, ought to be among the witnesses who is in the
testator's power, and if a son in power makes a will of military
peculium after his discharge, neither his father nor any one in his
father's power is qualified to be a witness; for it is not allowed to
support a will by the evidence of perso