ged: 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, [151] 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, [152] 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. [153] 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, asserted his rights, fulfilled hi