[IULIANUS libro quadragensimo secundo digestorum. ] §40.5.47.prSi pater duos filios heredes instituerit et adgnatione postumi ruptum testamentum fuerit, quamuis hereditas pro duabus partibus ad eos pertineat, tamen fideicommissae libertates praestari non debent, sicuti ne legata quidem aut fideicommissa praestare coguntur.
[JULIANUS in the forty-second book of the Digests.] If a father has appointed his two sons as heirs, and the testament has been revoked by the birth of a posthumous child, although the inheritance belongs to them in the proportion of two-thirds, nevertheless the liberties under trust ought not to be performed, just as they are not compelled to perform legacies or trusts either.
§40.5.47.1Si, cum alienum seruum heres rogatus sit manumitterere, item communem uel eum, in quo usus fructus alienus est, latitet, non inique senatus consulto libertatibus succurretur.
If, when the heir has been asked to manumit another's slave, or likewise a common slave, or one in whom another has a usufruct, he goes into hiding, it is not unjust that the liberties are succored by a decree of the senate.
§40.5.47.2Si Sticho libertas per fideicommissum data fuerit sub condicione, si rationes reddidisset, et is absente herede paratus sit reliqua soluere, praetoris officio continetur, ut uirum bonum eligat, cuius arbitrio rationes computentur, et pecuniam, quae ex computatione colligitur, deponat, atque ita pronuntiet libertatem ex causa fideicommissi deberi.
If liberty has been given to Stichus under trust on the condition "if he has rendered his accounts", and he, in the absence of the heir, is ready to pay the balance, it is within the office of the praetor that he choose an honest man by whose judgment the accounts may be computed, and that the slave deposit the money which is collected from the computation, and that the praetor thus pronounce that the liberty is due on the ground of the trust.
haec autem fieri conueniet, si heres ex iusta causa aberit: nam si latitabit, satis erit liquere praetori per seruum non stare, quo minus condicioni pareat atque ita pronuntiare de libertate oportebit.
This, however, will be appropriate to be done if the heir is absent for a just cause; for if he is in hiding, it will be sufficient for it to be clear to the praetor that it does not stand with the slave that he does not comply with the condition, and thus it will be necessary to pronounce concerning the liberty.
§40.5.47.3Cum sub condicione legato seruo libertas datur non aliter fideicommissario tradi debet, quam ut caueatur existente condicione traditu iri eum.
When liberty is given under a condition to a slave who has been legacy-bequeathed, he ought not to be delivered to the trustee of the trust otherwise than on the terms that security is given that, upon the existence of the condition, he will be delivered up.
§40.5.47.4Quaedam cum in extrema esset ualetudine, praesentibus honestis uiris compluribus et matre sua, ad quam legitima hereditas eius pertinebat, ita locuta est 'ancillas meas Maeuiam et Seiam liberas esse uolo' et intestata decessit: quaero, si mater ex senatus consulto legitimam hereditatem eius non uindicasset et hereditas ad proximum cognatum pertinuisset, an fideicommissa libertas deberetur.
A certain woman, when she was in extreme illness, in the presence of several honorable men and of her mother, to whom her statutory inheritance belonged, spoke in this way: "I wish my female slaves Maevia and Seia to be free", and died intestate. I ask: if the mother had not claimed her statutory inheritance under the decree of the senate, and the inheritance had belonged to the next cognate, whether the liberty under trust would be due.
respondi deberi: nam eam, quae in extremis dixisset 'ancillas meas illam et illam liberas esse uolo', uideri ab omnibus, qui legitimi heredes aut bonorum possessores futuri essent, petisse, ut hoc fieri possit.
I answered that it is due; for she who, in her last moments, had said "I wish my female slaves so-and-so and so-and-so to be free", is deemed to have requested of all who would be statutory heirs or possessors of goods that this might be done.