ereby an aggregate of
rights is acquired. If you become the successors, civil or praetorian,
of a person deceased, or adopt an independent person by adrogation, or
become assignees of a deceased's estate in order to secure their liberty
to slaves manumitted by his will, the whole estate of those persons is
transferred to you in an aggregate mass. Let us begin with inheritances,
whose mode of devolution is twofold, according as a person dies testate
or intestate; and of these two modes we will first treat of acquisition
by will. The first point which here calls for exposition is the mode in
which wills are made.

TITLE X. OF THE EXECUTION OF WILLS

The term testament is derived from two words which mean a signifying of
intention.

1 Lest the antiquities of this branch of law should be entirely
forgotten, it should be known that originally two kinds of testaments
were in use, one of which our ancestors employed in times of peace and
quiet, and which was called the will made in the comitia calata, while
the other was resorted to when they were setting out to battle, and was
called procinctum. More recently a third kind was introduced, called the
will by bronze and balance, because it was made by mancipation, which
was a sort of fictitious sale, in the presence of five witnesses and a
balance holder, all Roman citizens above the age of puberty, together
with the person who was called the purchaser of the family. The two
first-mentioned kinds of testament, however, went out of use even in
ancient times, and even the third, or will by bronze and balance, though
it has remained in vogue longer than they, has become partly disused.

2 All these three kinds of will which we have mentioned belonged to the
civil law, but later still a fourth form was introduced by the praetor's
edict; for the new law of the praetor, or ius honorarium, dispensed
with mancipation, and rested content with the seals of seven witnesses,
whereas the seals of witnesses were not required by the civil law.

3 When, however, by a gradual process the civil and praetorian
laws, partly by usage, partly by definite changes introduced by the
constitution, came to be combined into a harmonious whole, it was
enacted that a will should be valid which was wholly executed at one
time and in the presence of seven witnesses (these two points being
required, in a way, by the old civil law), to which the witnesses
signed their names--a new formality imposed by