Will
“testamentary document”
object · 3 works · 3 mentions · 6 anchored passages
will · a will · clause · his will · provisions · tabulae · testament · the will
in the texts
Against Stephanus I
A will whose clause and provisions are invoked in the dispute over property, guardianship, and witness testimony.
If they declare that they have testified, one person that he lived as ward under a will, another that he served as guardian, and another that he has the will in his possession, demand of them, What will?
But for himself he has not scrupled to marry his mistress, and he dwells as husband with her who scattered the sweatmeats over him when he was bought as a slave, nor to write a clause giving himself a marriage portion of five talents in addition to the large sums of which he became master, inasmuch as they were in the custody of my mother—for why do you suppose he wrote in the will the clause and …
Institutes of Roman Law
The testamentary document (tabulae/testamentum) whose formal validity, invalidity, and modes of revocation structure the entire passage.
The Rupture (ruptio) of a will was produced by two circumstances:
but a will is not, it is clear, invalidated by the mere intention of revocation.
So at civil law a will was revoked (ruptum) by after-birth (agnatio) of a self-successor, § 138;
Law in a Free State
The testamentary document whose presence, absence, or loss determines whether children (legitimate or not) inherit property.
Any man in his senses can make his will, and it is a criminal offence—morally speaking—if he fail to make it under such circumstances.
By an accident the will was lost, at all events it was not found, and the result was, that the child, morally entitled to property worth between thirty and forty thousand pounds, was left a pauper.
Furthermore, the law provides that where a man dies intestate, that is to say, when his will cannot be found, his property shall be distributed as he would himself (judging by the average) have distributed it.