uted
in the earlier will: for the words inserted in the later will
undoubtedly contain the expression of a wish that the earlier one shall
remain valid.' This accordingly is a mode in which a testament may be
revoked.

4 There is another event by which a will duly executed may be
invalidated, namely, the testator's undergoing a loss of status: how
this may happen was explained in the preceding Book.

5 In this case the will may be said to be rescinded, though both those
that are revoked, and those that are not duly executed, may be said to
become or be rescinded; and similarly too those which are duly executed
but subsequently rescinded by loss of status may be said to be revoked.
However, as it is convenient that different grounds of invalidity should
have different names to distinguish them, we say that some wills are
unduly executed from the commencement, while others which are duly
executed are either revoked or rescinded.

6 Wills, however, which, though duly executed, are subsequently
rescinded by the testator's undergoing loss of status are not altogether
inoperative: for if the seals of seven witnesses are attached, the
instituted heir is entitled to demand possession in accordance with the
will, if only the testator were a citizen of Rome and independent at
the time of his decease; but if the cause of the rescission was
the testator's subsequent loss of citizenship or of freedom, or his
adoption, and he dies an alien, or slave, or subject to his adoptive
father's power, the instituted heir is barred from demanding possession
in accordance with the will.

7 The mere desire of a testator that a will which he has executed shall
no longer have any validity is not, by itself, sufficient to avoid
it; so that, even if he begins to make a later will, which he does not
complete because he either dies first, or changes his mind, the first
will remains good; it being provided in an address of the Emperor
Pertinax to the Senate that one testament which is duly executed is not
revoked by a later one which is not duly and completely executed; for an
incomplete will is undoubtedly null.

8 In the same address the Emperor declared that he would accept no
inheritance to which he was made heir on account of a suit between the
testator and some third person, nor would he uphold a will in which he
was instituted in order to screen some legal defect in its execution,
or accept an inheritance to which he was instituted merely