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Chap, xliv] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 523 or testamentary heir ; who fulfilled with honour, or neglected with impunity, this last request, which the judges before the age of Augustus were not authorised to enforce. A codicil might be expressed in any mode, or in any language ; but the subscription of five witnesses must declare that it was the genuine composition of the author. His intention, however laudable, was sometimes illegal ; and the invention of Jidei- commissa, or trusts, arose from the struggle between natural justice and positive jurisprudence. A stranger of Greece or Africa might be the friend or benefactor of a childless Eoman; but none, except a fellow-citizen, could act as his heir. The Voconian law, which abolished female succession, restrained the legacy or inheritance of a woman to the sum of one hundred thousand sesterces; 160 and an only daughter was condemned almost as an alien in her father's house. The zeal of friendship and parental affection suggested a liberal artifice : a qualified citizen was named in the testament, with a prayer or injunction that he would restore the inheritance to the person for whom it was truly intended. Various was the conduct of the trustees in this painful situation : they had sworn to observe the laws of their country, but honour prompted them to violate their oath ; and, if they preferred their interest under the mask of patriotism, they forfeited the esteem of every virtuous mind. The declara- tion of Augustus relieved their doubts, gave a legal sanction to confidential testaments and codicils, and gently unravelled the forms and restraints of the republican jurisprudence. 161 But, as the new practice of trusts degenerated into some abuse, the trustee was enabled, by the Trebellian and Pegasian decrees, to reserve one-fourth of the estate, or to transfer on the head of the real heir all the debts and actions of the succession. The interpretation of testaments was strict and literal; but the language of trusts and codicils was delivered from the minute and technical accuracy of the civilians. 162 III. The general duties of mankind are imposed by their hi. of ° , actions 160 Dion Cassius (torn. ii. 1. lvi. p. 814 [c. 10] with Reimar's Notes) specifies in Greek money the sum of 25,000 drachms. 161 The revolutions of the Boman law6 of inheritance are finely, though sometimes fancifully, deduced by Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxvii.). 162 Of the civil jurisprudence of successions, testaments, codicils, legacies, and trusts, the principles are ascertained in the Institutes of Caius (1. ii. tit. ii.-ix. p. 91- 144), Justinian (1. ii. tit. x.-xxv.), and Theophilus (p. 328-514) ; and the immense detail occupies twelve books (xxviii.-xxxix.) of the Pandects.