legacy had to be left them that they might not seem to have been passed
over through forgetfulness.[172] I shall not concern myself particularly
with testate succession, because here obviously the will of the testator
could dispose as he wished, except in so far as he was limited by the
Falcidian Law. The matter of intestate succession may well claim our
attention; for therein we shall see what powers of inheritance were
given the female sex. The general principles are explained by Gaius
(iii, 1-38); and these principles followed, in the main, the law as laid
down in the Twelve Tables (451 B.C.). According to these, the estates of
those who died intestate belonged first of all to the children who were
in the power of the deceased at the time of his death; there was no
distinction of sex; the daughters were entitled to precisely the same
amount as the sons.[173] If the children of the testator had died, the
grandson or granddaughter _through the son_ succeeded; or the
great-grandson or great-granddaughter through the _grandson_. If a son
a daughter were alive, as well as grandsons and granddaughters through
the _son_, they were all equally called to the estate. The estate was
not divided per capita, but among families as a whole; for example, if
of two sons one only was alive, but the other had left children, the
testator's surviving son received one half of the patrimony and his
grandchildren through his other son the other half, to be divided among
them severally. If, then, there were six grandchildren, each received
one twelfth of the estate.

Here the powers of women to inherit stopped. Beyond the tie of
_consanguinitas_, that is, that of daughter to father, or granddaughter
through a _son_, the female line must at once turn aside, and had no
powers; the estate descended to the _agnati_, that is, male relatives on
the father's side. Hence a mother was shut out by a brother of the
deceased or by that brother's children. If there were no _agnati_, the