Restrictions on Legacies

Under the Law of the Twelve Tables, a testator was free to introduce as many legacies as he wished in his will and could in fact dispose of all the assets of his estate in this way.

may be expected, would be reluctant to accept an inheritance that was heavily burdened with legacies. If the appointed heirs declined to inherit, the inheritance would devolve according to the rules of intestate succession and the legatees would receive nothing. Two legislative enactments, the lex Furia testamentaria (early second century bc) and the lex Voconia (169 bc), attempted to address this problem by placing restrictions on testators in regard to the bequest of legacies, but these laws only engendered limited success.^[1160] Finally, the lexFalcidia enacted in 40 bc effectively settled the matter. This law provided that legacies should not exceed three-quarters of the testator’s estate, since the heirs were entitled to acquire at least one-quarter of the estate (the so-called quarta Falcidia).^[1161] If the legacies amounted to more than three-quarters of the estate, they were proportionally decreased. The lex Falcidia was not applicable to a soldier’s will (testamentum militare)^[1162] and Justinian made it possible for any testator to deprive his heirs of the quarta Falcidia by express provision in his will.^[1163]

5.6.2