[ULPIANUS libro secundo de officio consulis. ] §34.1.3.prSolent iudices ex causa alimentorum libertos diuidere, quotiens plures sunt heredes, ne a singulis heredibus minutatim alimenta petentes distringantur: quam diuisionem perinde tueri oportet atque si pater familias ipse libertos diuisisset.
[ULPIANUS, in his second book on the Office of Consul.] Judges are accustomed to divide freedmen on account of [claims for] maintenance, whenever there are several heirs, lest they [the freedmen] be harassed by seeking maintenance piece by piece from individual heirs; which division ought to be upheld in the same way as if the paterfamilias himself had divided the freedmen.
solent et unum eligere, per quem alimenta praestentur, aut ex uoluntate defuncti aut arbitrio suo, ut rescripta subiecta ostendunt: 'Exemplum libelli dati mihi a libertis Silii misi uobis, sciens ad exemplum istam rem pertinere, quia multi testamentis suis praestari libertis iubent necessaria, quae quia minimi aeris sunt, ad nihilum perducuntur, cum plures heredes coeperunt per successiones existere.
They are also accustomed to select one person, through whom the maintenance is to be provided, either in accordance with the will of the deceased or by their own discretion, as the subjoined rescripts show: 'I have sent you a copy of the petition presented to me by the freedmen of Silius, knowing that this matter serves as a precedent, because many people command in their wills that necessaries be provided to their freedmen, which, because they are of very small value, are reduced to nothing when several heirs begin to exist through successions.
qua de causa puto uos recte facturos, si conuocatis Fauillae heredibus procuratoribusue eorum constitueritis, cui a ceteris dari debeat pecunia, ex cuius usuris alimenta praestentur.
For which reason I think you will act rightly, if, having summoned the heirs of Favilla or their procurators, you determine to whom the money ought to be given by the others, from the interest of which the maintenance is to be provided.
debebit autem is qui accipiet cauere eis qui dabunt redditurum se, ut quisque ex libertis decesserit alioue quo modo in ciuitate esse desierit, tantum ex sorte, quantum efficiet pro portione computatio'. Diuus Pius Rubrio cuidam Telesphoro rescripsit: 'Consules uocatis his, a quibus uobis alimenta deberi ex causa fideicommissi constiterit, uel omnes ab uno uel facta pro rata distributione quis et¹ a quibus percipiatis, decernent.
And he who receives it will have to give security to those who give it that he will return—whenever any of the freedmen dies or in some other way ceases to be in the state—so much from the principal as the calculation will yield in proportion.' The deified Pius replied by rescript to a certain Rubrius Telesphorus: 'The consuls, having summoned those by whom it is established that maintenance is owed to you by reason of a trust, will decree either that you [all] receive [it] from one, or, a proportional distribution having been made, who [receives] and from whom you are to receive [it].
fiscus enim, si eo nomine quid ab eo uobis deberetur, exemplum sequetur.
For the imperial treasury, if anything were owed to you by it on that account, will follow the example.
iam nunc sciatis partes eorum, qui soluendo esse desierint, non pertinere ad onus reliquorum heredum'.
Indeed you should know right now that the shares of those who cease to be solvent do not pertain to the burden of the remaining heirs.'