[POMPONIUS libro tertio ad Sabinum. ] §41.1.19.prLiber homo, qui bona fide mihi seruit, id quod ex operis suis aut ex re mea pararet, ad me pertinere sine dubio Aristo ait: quod uero quis ei donauerit aut ex negotio gesto adquisierit, ad ipsum pertinere.
[POMPONIUS, On Sabinus, book 3] Aristo says that, regarding a free man who serves me in good faith, that which he acquires from his own labors or from my property belongs to me without doubt; but that which someone has donated to him or which he has acquired from managing affairs belongs to himself.
sed hereditatem legatumue non adquiri mihi per eum, quia neque ex re mea neque ex operis suis id sit nec ulla eius opera esset in legato, in hereditate aliquatenus, quia per ipsum adiretur (quod et Uarium Lucullum aliquando dubitasse), sed uerius esse non adquiri, etiamsi testator ad me uoluisset pertinere.
But an inheritance or a legacy is not acquired for me through him, because it does not arise either from my property or from his labors, and there would be no labor of his in a legacy, while in an inheritance there is to some extent, because the entry into it is made through him (concerning which even Varius Lucullus is said to have doubted at one time); but it is more correct that it is not acquired, even if the testator had wished it to belong to me.
sed licet ei minime adquirit, attamen, si uoluntas euidens testatoris appareat, restituendam esse ei hereditatem.
But although it is not acquired for him [the master] at all, nevertheless, if the evident will of the testator appears, the inheritance must be restored to him.
sed Trebatius, si liber homo bona fide seruiens iussu eius cui seruiet hereditatem adisset, heredem ipsum fieri nec interesse quid senserit, sed quid fecerit.
But Trebatius says that if a free man serving in good faith should enter upon an inheritance by order of the person whom he serves, he himself becomes the heir, and it is of no consequence what he thought, but what he did.
Labeo contra, si ex necessitate id fecisset: quod si ita, ut et ipse uellet, ipsum fieri heredem.
Labeo, on the contrary, holds that this is not so if he did it out of necessity; but if he did it in such a way that he himself also wished it, he himself becomes the heir.