[ULPIANUS libro uicensimo secundo ad edictum. ] §11.1.6.pret quia hoc defunctorum interest, ut habeant successores, interest et uiuentium, ne praecipitentur, quamdiu iuste deliberant.
[ULPIANUS, from the twenty-second book on the Edict.] And because, just as it is of importance to the deceased to have successors, so it is also of importance to the living not to be rushed as long as they are justly deliberating.
§11.1.6.1Interdum interrogatus quis, an heres sit, non cogitur respondere, ut puta si controuersiam hereditatis ab alio patiatur: et ita diuus Hadrianus constituit, ne aut negando se heredem praeiudicet sibi aut dicendo heredem illigetur etiam ablata sibi hereditate.
Sometimes, a person who is interrogated as to whether he is an heir is not compelled to answer, for example, if he is facing a dispute over the inheritance from another party; and the divine Hadrian decreed this, lest either by denying that he is an heir he should prejudice himself, or by saying that he is an heir he should be bound even if the inheritance is taken away from him.