The Same, Epistles, Book XIV. Where an estate is left to anyone on condition of his paying ten aurei, the devisee cannot obtain any portion of the land without paying the entire amount. The case, however, is different where the identical property is left to two persons under the same condition, for in this instance, under the terms of the will, the condition imposed upon the different parties may appear to have been divided among them separately, and therefore they can, as individuals, comply with it in proportion to their respective shares, and receive the legacy. For although the entire sum, on the payment of which the legacy is dependent, seems to be divided by the enumeration of the different persons, the condition cannot be divided where some accidental occurrence takes place, in the case where the legacy is left to one person conditionally, and the entire number of those who are substituted for the legatee should be considered as constituting but one individual.

The Same, Epistles, Book XIV. Anything that your slave obtains possession of by violence, without your knowledge, you do not possess, because he who is under your control cannot acquire corporeal possession if you are not aware of it; but he can acquire legal possession, as, for instance, he possesses what comes into his hands as part of his peculium. For when a master is said to possess by his slave, there is an excellent reason for this, because what is held by the slave actually, and for a good reason belongs to his peculium, and the peculium which a slave cannot possess as a citizen, but holds naturally, his master is considered to possess. Anything, however, which the slave acquires by illegal acts, is not possessed by the master, because it is not included in the peculium of the slave.

Javolenus, Epistles, Book XIV. Where a slave, whom his master has considered as abandoned by him, stipulates for something, his act is void; because anyone who looks upon property as abandoned rejects it altogether, and cannot make use of the services of anyone whom he is unwilling shall belong to him. If, however, he has been seized by another, he can acquire for his benefit by means of a stipulation, for this is a kind of donation. A great difference exists between a slave forming a part of an estate and one who is considered as abandoned; for one of them is retained by hereditary right, and he cannot be considered as abandoned who is subject to the entire right of inheritance, while the other having been intentionally abandoned by his master, cannot be held to be available for the use of him by whom he was rejected.