father of the deceased is preferred to the mother, but not
so the paternal grandfather or greatgrandfather, at least when it is
between them only that the question arises who is entitled. A brother by
the same father excluded the mother from the succession to both sons
and daughters, but a sister by the same father came in equally with the
mother; and where there were both a brother and a sister by the same
father, as well as a mother who was entitled by number of children,
the brother excluded the mother, and divided the inheritance in equal
moieties with the sister.

4 By a constitution, however, which we have placed in the Code made
illustrious by our name, we have deemed it right to afford relief to the
mother, in consideration of natural justice, of the pains of childbirth,
and of the danger and even death which mothers often incur in this
manner; for which reason we have judged it a sin that they should be
prejudiced by a circumstance which is entirely fortuitous. For if a
freeborn woman had not borne three, or a freedwoman four children, she
was undeservedly defrauded of the succession to her own offspring;
and yet what fault had she committed in bearing few rather than many
children? Accordingly, we have conferred on mothers a full statutory
right of succession to their children, and even if they have had no
other child than the one in question deceased.

5 The earlier constitutions, in their review of statutory rights of
succession, were in some points favourable, in others unfavourable,
to mothers; thus in some cases they did not call them to the whole
inheritance of their children, but deducted a third in favour of certain
other persons with a statutory title, while in others they did exactly
the opposite. We, however, have determined to follow a straightforward
and simple path, and, preferring the mother to all other persons with a
statutory title, to give her the entire succession of her sons, without
deduction in favour of any other persons except a brother or sister,
whether by the same father as the deceased, or possessing rights of
cognation only; so that, as we have preferred the mother to all with
a statutory title, so we call to the inheritance, along with her, all
brothers and sisters of the deceased, whether statutorily entitled or
not: provided that, if the only surviving relatives of the deceased
are sisters, agnatic or cognatic, and a mother, the latter shall have
onehalf, and all the sisters