Sabinus

Vnde qui facultates suas suspectas habet, solet seruum suum primo aut secundo uel etiam ulteriore gradu liberum et heredem instituere, ut si creditoribus satis non fiat, potius huius heredis quam ipsius testatoris bona ueneant, id est ut ignominia quae accidit ex uenditione bonorum hunc potius heredem quam ipsum testatorem contingat;

It was the opinion of Sabinus that, as long as a term for formally declaring and thereby becoming heir subsists, a person in a higher grade does not let in the substitute, even if he informally act as heir, and that only after the expiration of the term is the substitute admitted instead of the person instituted, who has been acting as heir.

For when a man’s affairs are embarrassed, it is common for his slave, either in the first place (institutio) or as a substitute in the second or any inferior place (substitutio), to be enfranchised and appointed heir, so that, if the creditors are not paid in full, the property may be sold rather as belonging to this heir than to the testator, the ignominy of insolvency thus attaching to the heir …

And the Lord increased our consolation through our son, the most reverent fellow deacon Sabinus, who, by relating accurately the good things among you, fed our souls;

For we, having met with Sabinus, the deacon sent by them, wrote to the Illyrians and to the bishops in Italy and Gaul, and to certain of those who had written to us privately.

Yet now at least, both for your zeal for the truth and out of compassion for us, we beg you to rouse yourselves, having learned everything — even all that before this escaped your ears — from our most reverent brother, the fellow deacon Sabinus, who will be able to relate to you from himself whatever escapes the letter.