Agnates
group · 1 work · 4 mentions · 14 anchored passages
agnates · agnati · Agnati · Agnatio · Agnation · agnate · agnatos · statutory guardians · the agnates of the deceased
in the texts
Institutes of Roman Law
Kin related through males; under Roman civil law of the Twelve Tables, the nearest agnate is the primary heir of an intestate.
but as females were only entitled to inherit by the first degree of agnation, § 14, the word ‘agnates’ was sometimes limited to denote male agnates.
Female agnates, at all events, beyond the degree of sisters are called in the third degree, that is to say, after self-successors and other agnates.
but Justinian totally abolished the limitation, and restored the rule of the Twelve Tables, allowing females to succeed in the order of agnates, however remote might be their degree of agnation, provided that no nearer degree was in existence.