Note 352 — LIFE OF ANTONIUS.

See the Life of Cicero, c. 43, and Dion Cassius (xlv. 5) as to the matter of the inheritance. A person who accepted a Roman inheritance (hereditas) took it with all the debts: the heir (heres), so far as concerned the deceased’s property, credits and debts, was the same person as himself. There was no risk in taking the inheritance on account of debts, for Cæsar left enormous sums of money: the risk was in taking the name and with it the wealth and odium of the deceased. Cæsar might have declined the inheritance, for he was not bound by law to take it. Cæsar had three-fourths of the Dictator’s property, and Q. Pedius, also a great-nephew of the Dictator, had the remainder.