[ULPIANUS libro secundo ad Sabinum. ] §29.1.3.prSi miles, qui destinauerat communi iure testari, ante defecerit quam testaretur? Pomponius dubitat.
[ULPIANUS in his second book on Sabinus.] If a soldier, who had intended to make a will under the common law, should die before he made it, Pomponius is in doubt.
sed cur non in milite diuersum probet? neque enim qui uoluit iure communi testari, statim beneficio militari renuntiauit, nec credendus est quisquam genus testandi eligere ad impugnanda sua iudicia, sed magis utroque genere uoluisse propter fortuitos casus: quemadmodum plerique pagani solent, cum testamentum faciunt perscripturam, adicere uelle hoc etiam uice codicillorum ualere.
But why should one not approve a different rule in the case of a soldier? For he who wished to make a will under the common law did not thereby immediately renounce his military privilege, nor should anyone be believed to choose a type of testation in order to defeat his own intentions, but rather to have wished for both types on account of accidental events; just as most civilians are accustomed, when they make a will in writing, to add that they wish this to be valid also in the place of a codicil.
quicquam dixerit, si imperfectum sit testamentum, codicillos non esse, nam secundum nostram sententiam etiam diuus Marcus rescripsit.
Even if someone should say that, if the will is incomplete, there is no codicil, for the divine Marcus also issued a rescript in accordance with our opinion.