LĒGĀTUM

a part of the here ditas which a testator gives out of it, from the heres ( ab herede ); that is, it is a gift to a person out of that whole ( universum ) which is diminished to the heres by such gift. There were several laws limiting the amount of property which a person might give in legacies; and it was at last fixed by the Lex Falcidia ( B.C. 40), that he should not bequeath more than three-fourths of his property in legacies, and thus a fourth was left to the heres. By the Law of the Twelve Tables a man could dispose of his property as he pleased, and he might exhaust ( erogare ) the whole here ditas by legacies and bequests of freedom to slaves, so as to leave the heres nothing. The consequence was that in such cases the script i heredes refused to take the here ditas, and there was of course an intestacy. Legata were inutilia or void, if they were given before a heres was instituted by the will, for the will derived all its legal efficacy from such institution; there was the same rule as to a gift of freedom.