as one only. 6 If a man can prove that through poverty he is
unequal to the burden of the office, this, according to rescripts
of the imperial brothers and of the Emperor Marcus, is a valid
ground of excuse. 7 Ill-health again is a sufficient excuse if it
be such as to prevent a man from attending to even his own
affairs: 8 and the Emperor Pius decided by a rescript that
persons unable to read ought to be excused, though even
these are not incapable of transacting business. 9 A man too
is at once excused if he can show that a father has appointed
him testamentary guardian out of enmity, while conversely no
one can in any case claim exemption who promised the ward's
father that he would act as guardian to them: 10 and it was
settled by a rescript of M. Aurelius and L. Verus that the alleg-
ation that one was unacquainted with the pupil's father cannot
be admitted as a ground of excuse. 11 Enmity against the ward's
father, if extremely bitter, and if there was no reconciliation, is
usually accepted as a reason for exemption from the office of
guardian; 12 and similarly a person can claim to be excused
whose status or civil rights have been disputed by the father
of the ward in an action. 13 Again, a person over seventy
years of age can claim to be excused from acting as guardian
or curator, and by the older law persons less than twenty-five
were similarly exempted. But our constitution, having for-
bidden the latter to aspire to these functions, has made excuses
unnecessary. The effect of this enactment is that no pupil or
person under twenty-five years of age is to be called to a stat-
utory guardianship; for it was most incongruous to place persons
under the guardianship or administration of those who are
known themselves to need assistance in the management of
their own affairs, and are themselves governed by others.