Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

HERES. HERES. 601
For instance, if the heredes instituti were sui, the but only in respect of the property, for the.obliga.
person or persons passed over took an equal share tion of the sacra privata was attached to property
with thenm. If the heredes instituti were extranei, and to the heres only as the owner of it. Hence
the person or persons passed over took a half of the expression " sine sacris hereditas" meant an
the whole hereditas; and as the praetor gave the hereditas unencumbered with sacra. (Plant. CGad.
contra tabulas bonorum possessio to the person so iv. 1. 8, Trinumz. ii. 4. 83; Festus, s. v. Sine sacris
passed over, the extranei were deprived of all the hereditas.)
hereditas. A rescript of the emperor M. Antoninus The legislation of Justinian released the heres,
limited the amount which women could take by the who accepted an hereditas, from all the debts and
bonorusm possessio to that which they'could take obligations of the testator or intestate, beyond
jure adcrescendi; and the same was the law in the what the property would satisfy, provided he made
case of emancipated females. out an inventory (iuzcentarizsn2) of the property in
It was necessary either to institute as heredes, a certain form and within a given time. (Cod. 6.
or to exheredate posthumous children nomwinatin, tit. 30. s. 22.) It also allowed the institution of
otherwise the will, which was originally valid, a man's own slave as heres without giving him his
became invalid (rZltumz7); and the will became freedom. (Inst. 2. tit. 14; comp. Gaius, ii. 185.)
invalid by the birth either of a posthumous son or The heres could claim any property which bedaughter, or, as the phrase was, adgnascendo rum- longed to his testator or intestate by the hereditapitur testamentum. (Cic. de 01. i. 57.) Postumi tis petitio (Dig. 5. tit. 3. s. 20), which was an actio
were not only those who were born after the tes- in rem, and properly belonged to a heres only,
tator's will was made, and came into his power or though it was afterwards given to the bonoruln
would have come into his power if he had lived, possessor. Each heres claimed only his share.
but also those who might become the sui heredes (Cic. Pro Rose. Cons. c. 18.)
of the testator by the death of some other person The coheredes shared among themselves the proin the testator's lifetime. Thus, if a testator's son, perty, and bore their share of the debts in the, same
who was in his power, had children, and tile son proportions. For the purpose of division and setdied in the testator's lifetime, the grandchildren tling the affairs of the testator, a sale was often
became sui heredes, and the testament became necessary. (Cic.adAtt. xi. 15.) If the parties could
rulptum by this quasi agnatio: it was therefore a not agree about the division of the property, any
necessary precaution to institute as heredes or to of them might have an actio familiae ercisciundae.
exheredate such grandchildren. It follows that if [FAMILIAE EsRC. Ac.]
the testament could be made invalid by this quasi The hereditas might be alienated by the form of
agnatio, it must have become invalid by a son in jure cessio. The heres legitimus might alienate
being born in the lifetime of the testator, unless the hereditas before he took possession of it, and
the will had provided for the case; for it became the purchaser then became heres, just as if he ladl
invalid if the testator adopted a son or a daughter been the legitimus heres. The scriptus heres could
(Ulpian) either by adrogation or adoption properly only alienate it after the aditio: after such alienaso called, after the date of his will. The case was tion by him, or by the heres legitimus after aditio,
the samne if he took a wife in manum after the date both of them still remained heredes, and conseof the will. quently answerable to creditors, but all debts due
The word Postumus has clearly the same signi- to them as heredes were extinguished.
fication as Postremus. and literally means a child The hereditates of freedmen are more properly
born last. The passage of Gaius is defective where considered under LIBERTI and PATRONI.
lie treats of Postulmi; but the definition of Postumi, Before it was determined who was heres, the
as preserved in the Breviarium, appears to be hereditas was without an owner, and was said
exact: " Postumoruml duo genera sunt: quia ",jacere." When a heres was ascertained, such
postumi adpellantur hi, qui post mortem patris de person was considered to possess all the rights inuxore nati fuerint, et illi qui post testamentum cident to the hereditas from the time of the death
factum nascuntur." Sometimes the word postumus of the testator or intestate. But this does not exis defined only as a child born after a father's plain how we are to view the hereditas in the indeath, as we see in some of the Glossae, and in terval between the death of the former owner and
Plutarch (Sulla, 37); but there is no proof that the time when the heres is ascertained. During
the meaning was limited to such children; and the such interval, according to one form of expressaon
passages sometimes cited as being to that effect used by the Roman jurists, the hereditas is a juris(Dig. 50. tit. 16. s. 1 64; 28. tit. 3. s. 3) have been tical person (vice p bersonae ftingitur), and is the
misunderstood. domina, that is, the domlina of itself; according to
As to Postumi alieni, see Gaius, i. 147, ii. 242; another form of expression, it represents the dleVangerow, Pandekten, &c. vol. ii. p. 90. funct, and not the person of the future heres.
Other cases in which a valid testamentumn These two forms are the same in meanling, and
became ruptum or irritumn, are more properly con- they express a fiction which has relation to the
sidered under TESTAMENTUAs. legal capacity of the defunct, and not that of the
The strictness of the old civil law was modified future heres, and which does not involve the noby the praetorian law, which gave the bonorumn tion of any juristical personality of the hereditas.
possessio to those who could not take the hereditas The relation to the legal capacity of the defunct is
by the rules. of the civil law. [BoNORUsv Pos- this: - Slaves generally belonged to an hereditas.
SESSIO.] A slave, as is well known, could acquire property
The heres represented the testator and intestate for his living master, even without his knowledge
(Ciq. de Ley. ii. 19), and had not only a clainm to all but the validity of the act of acquisition, in sonle
his property and all that was due to him, but was cases, depended on the legal capacity of his master
bound by all his obligations.- He succeeded to the to acquire. Now, while the hereditas was without
sacra privata, and was bound to maintain them, an ascertained owner, many acts of a slave by