[UALENS libro primo fideicommissorum. ] §34.1.22.prCum alimenta per fideicommissum relicta sunt non adiecta quantitate, ante omnia inspiciendum est, quae defunctus solitus fuerat ei praestare, deinde quid ceteris eiusdem ordinis reliquerit: si neutrum apparuerit, tum ex facultatibus defuncti et caritate eius, cui fideicommissum datum erit, modus statui debebit.
[VALENS, in the first book on Trust-bequests.] When maintenance has been left by a trust-bequest without the quantity being specified, first of all it must be examined what the deceased had been accustomed to provide to him, and then what he left to others of the same rank. If neither appears, then the amount must be determined from the resources of the deceased and his affection toward the person to whom the trust-bequest was given.
§34.1.22.1Qui fratris sui libertis alimenta debebat, his testamento uineas cum hac adiectione reliquerat 'ut habeant, unde se pascant'. si pro alimentis uineas reliquisset, non aliter eis ex fideicommissi causa eas praestari debere, quam si testamenti obligatione heredes liberassent: aut, si id omissum fuisset et postea ex testamento agerent, doli mali exceptione tutum heredem futurum, scilicet si non minus ualent uineae quam alimentorum aestimatio.
A man who owed maintenance to his brother's freedmen had left them by will vineyards with this addition: "that they may have wherewith to feed themselves." If he had left the vineyards in place of the maintenance, they ought not otherwise to be provided to them on the ground of the trust-bequest, than if they released the heirs from the obligation of the will; or, if this had been omitted and they later sued on the will, the heir would be protected by the plea of fraud, provided, of course, that the vineyards are worth no less than the valuation of the maintenance.
illam autem adiectionem 'ut habeant unde se pascant' magis ad causam praelegandi quam ad usum fructum constituendum pertinere.
However, that addition, "that they may have wherewith to feed themselves," pertains more to the reason for the pre-legacy than to establishing a usufruct.