Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/109

 ■CHAP. VII. THE RIGHT OF SUCCESSION. 103 tout singularly logical laws, for setting out from llie principle that the inheritance was attached to the woi"*- ship, they excluded from the inheritance those whom this religion did not authorize to continue the worship. 4. Effects of Emancipation and Adoption. TVe have already seen that emancipation and adop- tion ju-oduced a change in a man's worship. The first separated him from the paternal worship, the second initiated him into the religion of another family. Here also the ancient law conformed to the rules of religion. The son who had been excluded from the paternal worship by emancipation was also excluded from the inheritance. On the other hand, the stranger who had been associated in the worship of a family by adoption became a son there; he continued its worship, and inherited the estate. In both cases ancient law made more account of the religious tie than of the tie of birth. As it was contrary to religion that one man should have two domestic worships, so he could not inherit from two families. Besides, the adopted son, who in- herited of the adopting family, did not inherit from his natural family. Athenian law was very explicit on this point. The orations of Attic orators often show us men who have been adopted into a family, and who wished to inherit in the one in which they were born ; but the law was against them. The adopted son could not inherit from his own family unless he re-entei"ed it ; he ■could not re-enter it except by renouncing the adopting family; and he could leave this latter only on two con- ditions: the one was, that he abandoned the patrimony of this family ; the other was, that the domestic worship,