2 It is to be noted that, besides the liability of guardians and
curators to their pupils, or the persons for whom they act, for the
management of their property, there is a subsidiary action against the
magistrate accepting the security, which may be resorted to where
all other remedies prove inadequate, and which lies against those
magistrates who have either altogether omitted to take security from
guardians or curators, or taken it to an insufficient amount. According
to the doctrines stated by the jurists, as well as by imperial
constitutions, this action may be brought against the magistrate's heirs
as well as against him personally;

3 and these same constitutions ordain that guardians or curators who
make default in giving security may be compelled to do so by legal
distraint of their goods.

4 This action, however, will not lie against the prefect of the city,
the praetor, or the governor of a province, or any other magistrate
authorized to appoint guardians, but only against those to whose usual
duties the taking of security belongs.

TITLE XXV. OF GUARDIANS' AND CURATORS' GROUNDS OF EXEMPTION

There are various grounds on which persons are exempted from serving the
office of guardian or curator, of which the most common is their having
a certain number of children, whether in power or emancipated. If, that
is to say, a man has, in Rome, three children living, in Italy four, or
in the provinces five, he may claim exemption from these, as from other
public offices; for it is settled that the office of a guardian or
curator is a public one. Adopted children cannot be reckoned for this
purpose, though natural children given in adoption to others may:
similarly grandchildren by a son may be reckoned, so as to represent
their father, while those by a daughter may not. It is, however, only
living children who avail to excuse their fathers from serving as
guardian or curator; such as have died are of no account, though the
question has arisen whether this rule does not admit of an exception
where they have died in war; and it is agreed that this is so, but only
where they have fallen on the field of battle: for these, because they
have died for their country, are deemed to live eternally in fame.

1 The Emperor Marcus, too, replied by rescript, as is recorded in his
Semestria, that employment in the service of the Treasury is a valid
excuse from serving as guardian or curator so long as that employment
las