[ULPIANUS libro quadragesimo quinto ad edictum. ] §29.1.1.prMilitibus liberam testamenti factionem primus quidem diuus Iulius Caesar concessit: sed ea concessio temporalis erat.
[ULPIANUS in his forty-fifth book on the Edict.] The deified Julius Caesar was indeed the first to grant soldiers the free capacity to make a will, but that concession was temporary.
postea uero primus diuus Titus dedit: post hoc Domitianus: postea diuus Nerua plenissimam indulgentiam in milites contulit: eamque et Traianus secutus est et exinde mandatis inseri coepit caput tale.
Afterwards, however, the deified Titus was the first to grant it; after him Domitian; and afterwards the deified Nerva conferred the fullest indulgence upon the soldiers. Trajan also followed this, and from then on, a clause of the following kind began to be inserted in the instructions.
Caput ex mandatis: 'Cum in notitiam meam prolatum sit subinde testamenta a commilitonibus relicta proferri, quae possint in controuersiam deduci, si ad diligentiam legum reuocentur et obseruantiam: secutus animi mei integritudinem erga optimos fidelissimosque commilitones simplicitati eorum consulendum existimaui, ut quoquomodo testati fuissent, rata esset eorum uoluntas.
A clause from the instructions: 'Since it has repeatedly been brought to my attention that wills left by fellow soldiers are produced which might be brought into dispute if they were recalled to the strictness and observance of the laws, following the integrity of my mind toward my best and most loyal fellow soldiers, I have deemed that their simplicity should be consulted, so that in whatever way they had made their wills, their wish should be valid.
faciant igitur testamenta quo modo uolent, faciant quo modo poterint sufficiatque ad bonorum suorum diuisionem faciendam nuda uoluntas testatoris'. §29.1.1.1Miles autem appellatur uel a militia, id est duritia, quam pro nobis sustinent, aut a multitudine, aut a malo, quod arcere milites solent, aut a numero mille hominum, ductum a Graeco uerbo, tractum a tagmate: nam Graeci mille hominum multitudinem τάγμα appellant, quasi millensimum quemque dictum: unde ipsum ducem χιλίαρχον appellant.
Therefore, let them make their wills in whatever way they wish, let them make them in whatever way they can, and the bare wish of the testator shall suffice for making the division of their property.' Now, a soldier (miles) is so called either from military service (militia), that is, hardness (duritia), which they endure for us, or from a multitude (multitudo), or from evil (malum), which soldiers are accustomed to ward off, or from the number of a thousand (mille) men, derived from a Greek word and drawn from "tagma"; for the Greeks call a multitude of a thousand men a "tagma" (τάγμα), as if saying every thousandth; whence they call the commander himself a "chiliarch" (χιλίαρχος).
exercitus autem nomen ab exercitatione traxit.
Furthermore, the army (exercitus) drew its name from exercise (exercitatio).