[IDEM libro tertio decimo disputationum. ] §27.1.45.prTitius filiis meis, quoad rei publicae causa non abierit, tutor esto'. gessit tutelam ex testamento delatam, deinde rei publicae causa abesse coepit et desiit.
[THE SAME, from the thirteenth book of the Disputations.] 'Let Titius be the tutor to my children, as long as he does not depart on public business.' He performed the guardianship entrusted to him by the will, then began to be absent on public business, and ceased to be so.
an quasi noua tutela nunc delata excusari debeat etiam ob absentiam rei publicae causa, an, quia praecessit testamentum absentiam ob publicam causam et est ab eo iam administrata tutela, non oporteat eum excusari? quid si liberos interea susceperit aut aliam excusationem parauit? magis est, ut haec una tutela sit: ideo nec excusationem ei competere nec agi tutelae ob prius tempus posse.
Should he be excused, as if a new guardianship were now entrusted, even on account of his absence on public business, or, because the will preceded his absence on public business and the guardianship has already been administered by him, ought he not to be excused? What if he has in the meantime had children or prepared another excuse? It is more correct that this is a single guardianship; therefore, neither does the excuse apply to him, nor can an action be brought concerning the guardianship for the prior period.
§27.1.45.1Sed si ita scriptum in testamento fuit: 'Titius tutor esto: cum rei publicae causa aberit, tutor ne esto: cum redierit, tutor esto', quid de excusatione aut ob absentiam rei publicae causa aut aliam quae post obuenit dici oporteat, uideamus.
But if it was written in the will as follows: 'Let Titius be tutor; when he is absent on public business, let him not be tutor; when he returns, let him be tutor,' let us see what ought to be said concerning the excuse either on account of absence on public business or another that arose later.
praecedit autem alia quaestio, testamento ex die uel sub condicione tutores dati an se excusare ante diem condicionemue necesse habeant et in primis an iam dies quinquaginta eis cedant, intra quos necesse est causas excusationis exercere.
But another question precedes: whether tutors appointed by a will from a certain day or under a condition are required to excuse themselves before the day or the condition, and especially whether the fifty days, within which it is necessary to present causes for excuse, already begin to run for them.
sed uerum est non ante esse tutorem, quam dies uenerit: nam nec antequam adita sit hereditas.
But it is true that one is not a tutor before the day arrives; for neither is one a tutor before the inheritance has been entered upon.
quia igitur ex eodem testamento iam gesta fuit tutela et qui excusatus est alias afuturus rei publicae causa, reuersus continuo haeret tutelis ante susceptis etiam intra annum, sed hic ex ipso testamento desierit esse tutor et ideo ex secunda tutela excusare se potest.
Therefore, because under the same will the guardianship had already been administered, and a person who was excused because he was to be absent elsewhere on public business, upon his return, immediately clings to the guardianships previously undertaken, even within a year; but this man, by the will itself, had ceased to be tutor, and therefore he can excuse himself from the second guardianship.
§27.1.45.2Si a praetore detur curator mente capto aut muto siue uentri, excusatur iure liberorum.
If a curator is appointed by the praetor to a person of unsound mind, a mute, or an unborn child, he is excused by the right of children.
§27.1.45.3Romae datos tutores eos tantum accipere debemus, qui uel a praefecto urbis uel a praetore uel in testamento Romae confecto uel in continentibus dati sunt.
We ought to understand those only as 'tutors appointed at Rome' who have been appointed either by the prefect of the city, or by the praetor, or in a will made at Rome or in the adjacent areas.
§27.1.45.4Si tanta corporis aut mentis ualetudine ab agendis rebus libertus prohibeatur, ut ne suis quidem negotiis sufficiat, necessitati erit subcumbendum, ne inpossibile iniungatur tutelae munus, quod obiri a liberto non potest cum incommodo pupilli et aduersus utilitatem eius.
If a freedman is prevented by such severe ill health of body or mind from conducting affairs that he is not even sufficient for his own business, necessity must be yielded to, lest an impossible duty of guardianship be imposed, which cannot be undertaken by the freedman without disadvantage to the pupil and against his interest.