Epistula hadriani de bonorum possesione liberis militium danda. The Epistle of Emperor Hadrian on the Inheritance Rights of Soldiers’ Children

Abstract

Starting from the 1st century AD, Roman soldiers were banned from getting married in order to maintain military discipline. Consequently, the union between soldiers and women (mostly peregrine but also Roman citizens) was legally ineffective. The effects of the ban mainly applied to private law and one of its most severe consequences was the illegitimacy of the soldiers’ offspring. Liberi illegitimi were not in the potestas of their fathers and had no inheritance rights. However, in the case of soldiers’ children, a concession was made: the soldier had a possibility to include a Latin or a peregrine in his will (testamentum militis), so his child – as a son of a peregrine woman – could inherit ex testamento. However, it was not possible to inherit when the soldier died intestate. In his epistula issued in 119 AD, Emperor Hadrian allowed the soldiers’ liberi illegitimi to inherit ab intestato. In the case of bonorum possessio, they were appointed heirs among other cognates (unde cognati). The article presents the circumstances of issuing the epistula and its legal effects.