3.1.66 to 3.1.70

(62) Again, if one of the patrons rejects his share to the estate of a freedman who is a Roman citizen, or dies before he formally accepts it, the entire estate will belong to the other; but the property of a Latin will belong to the people, so far as the share of the patron who refuses to accept it is concerned. (63) Subsequently, during the Consulate of Lupus and Largus, the Senate decreed that the estate of Latins should belong, in the first place, to the party who manumitted them; and next to the children of the latter, who were not disinherited by name, according to their proximity; and then, by the ancient law, to the heirs of those who manumitted them. (64) Certain authorities hold that, under this Decree of the Senate, the same rule applies to the estates of Latins as to those of freedmen, who are Roman citizens; and this was the opinion of Pegasus. This doctrine, however, is evidently incorrect, for the estate of a freedman who is a Roman citizen never belongs to the foreign heirs of his patron; while the estate of a Latin citizen under this very Decree of the Senate, where the party who manumitted him left no children, will belong to his foreign heirs. Likewise, with reference to the estate of a freedman who is a Roman citizen, disinheritance does not in any way injure the children of the party who manumitted them; while in the case of the property of Latins, it is set forth in the said Decree of the Senate that where disinheritance is specifically made, they will be injured. Hence, the only actual effect of this Decree of the Senate is, that the children of the party who manumitted the slave, and who are not disinherited by name, are preferred to foreign heirs.