[IULIANUS libro quadragensimo octauo digestorum. ] §9.2.42.prQui tabulas testamenti depositas aut alicuius rei instrumentum ita deleuit, ut legi non possit, depositi actione et ad exhibendum tenetur, quia corruptam rem restituerit aut exhibuerit.
[JULIANUS, in the forty-eighth book of his Digests.] Anyone who has so destroyed deposited testamentary tablets or an instrument of any property that it cannot be read, is liable to the action on deposit and the action for production, because he has restored or produced a damaged thing.
legis quoque Aquiliae actio ex eadem causa competit: corrupisse enim tabulas recte dicitur et qui eas interleuerit.
An action also under the Lex Aquilia lies on the same ground: for even he who has smeared them over is rightly said to have "damaged" the tablets.