[PAULUS libro singulari de portionibus, quae liberis damnatorum conceduntur. ] §48.20.7.prCum ratio naturalis quasi lex quaedam tacita liberis parentium hereditatem addiceret, uelut ad debitam successionem eos uocando (propter quod et in iure ciuili suorum heredum nomen eis indictum est ac ne iudicio quidem parentis nisi meritis de causis summoueri ab ea successione possunt): aequissimum existimatum est eo quoque casu, quo propter poenam parentis aufert bona damnatio, rationem haberi liberorum, ne alieno admisso grauiorem poenam luerent, quos nulla contingeret culpa, interdum in summam egestatem deuoluti.
[PAULUS, from the Single Book on the Portions which are Granted to the Children of Condemned Persons.] Since natural reason, as if by a certain tacit law, assigned the inheritance of parents to their children, as it were by calling them to a deserved succession (for which reason also in civil law the name of "sui heredes" was bestowed upon them, and they cannot be removed from that succession even by the decision of a parent except for meritorious reasons): it was deemed most equitable that, also in that case where condemnation takes away property on account of the punishment of a parent, consideration should be given to the children, lest they, whom no guilt touched, should suffer a more severe punishment on account of another's wrongdoing, sometimes being reduced to the deepest poverty.
quod cum aliqua moderatione definiri placuit, ut qui ad uniuersitatem uenturi erant iure successionis, ex ea portiones concessas haberent.
This, it was pleased to be defined with some moderation, so that those who were to come to the entirety by the right of succession should have the portions granted from it.
§48.20.7.1Si in libertinum animaduersum erit, patrono eius id, quod in bonis illius habiturus esset, si is in quem animaduersum est sua morte decessisset, eripiendum non erit: reliqua pars bonorum, quae ad manumissorem non pertinebit, fisco erit uindicanda.
If punishment is inflicted upon a freedman, that which his patron would have had in his property if the person upon whom punishment was inflicted had deceased by his own death, must not be snatched away from him; the remaining part of the property, which will not belong to the manumissor, shall be claimed for the treasury.
§48.20.7.2Ex bonis damnatorum portiones adoptiuis liberis, si non fraudis causa facta est adoptio, non minus quam naturalibus concedi aequum est.
It is equitable that portions from the property of condemned persons be granted to adopted children, if the adoption was not made for the sake of fraud, no less than to natural ones.
fraudis autem causa adoptio facta uidetur, etiamsi non in reatu, sed desperatione rerum per conscientiam, metu imminentis accusationis quis adoptet in hoc, ut ex bonis, quae se amissurum cogitat, portio detrahatur.
Moreover, an adoption is deemed to have been made for the sake of fraud, even if one is not under accusation, but through consciousness of guilt in desperation of his affairs, out of fear of an imminent accusation, he adopts with this in view, that a portion may be detracted from the property which he thinks he will lose.
§48.20.7.3Si plures filios damnatus habeat, feruntur exempla, per quae pluribus liberis omnia bona damnati concessa sunt.
If a condemned person should have several children, examples are cited through which all the property of the condemned was granted to several children.
sed et diuus Hadrianus in hac sententia rescripsit: 'Fauorabilem apud me causam liberorum Albini filiorum numerus facit, cum ampliari imperium hominum adiectione potius quam pecuniarum copia malim: ideoque illis paterna sua concedi uolo, quae manifestabunt tot possessores, etiamsi acceperint uniuersa'. §48.20.7.4Praeterea ex his, quae per flagitium damnatus adquisiit, portiones liberorum non augentur: ueluti si cognatum suum interemi curauerit et eius hereditatem adiit uel bonorum possessionem accepit: nam ita diuus Pius rescripsit.
But also the Divine Hadrian wrote in a rescript to this effect: "The number of Albinus' children makes the cause of the children favorable with me, since I prefer that the empire be expanded by the addition of men rather than by the abundance of money: and therefore I wish their father's property to be granted to them, which so many possessors will make manifest, even if they have received the entirety." Furthermore, the portions of the children are not increased from those things which the condemned person acquired through a crime: as, for example, if he took care to have his relative killed and entered upon his inheritance or accepted possession of the property; for so the Divine Pius wrote in a rescript.
cui consequenter illud idem princeps constituit, cum filia familias ueneno necasse conuinceretur eum, a quo heres instituta erat: quamuis iussu patris, cuius in potestate erat, hereditatem eam adiisset, tamen fisco eam uindicandam esse.
Consistently with this, the same emperor established that when a daughter in power was convicted of having killed with poison him by whom she had been instituted heir: although she had entered upon that inheritance by the order of her father, in whose power she was, it must nevertheless be claimed for the treasury.
§48.20.7.5Quae post condemnationem adquisiit is cuius bona publicata sunt, si relegatus est, ad heredes scriptos ab eo uel ab intestato uenientes pertinent: nam in insulam relegatus testamenti factionem habet ut reliqua quoque iura.
Those things which he whose property was confiscated acquired after condemnation, if he has been relegated, belong to the heirs appointed by him or coming from intestacy: for a person relegated to an island has the capacity to make a will, as also other rights.
quod si deportatus est, quoniam, quia ciuitatem amittit, heredem habere non potest, etiam postea adquisita fiscus capit.
But if he has been deported, since, because he loses citizenship, he cannot have an heir, the treasury takes even those things acquired afterwards.