Note 184 — Chapter I · THE EARLIEST CONSTITUTION OF ROME

Mommsen (Staatsr. i. pp. 213, 214) takes a different view, arguing that the king was in every case nominated, not by the rex, but by the interrex, on the legal ground that the appointment of a successor would have been one of those “actus legitimi qui non recipiunt diem vel condicionem” (such as hereditatis aditio, tutoris datio), and which “in totum vitiantur per temporis vel condicionis adjectionem” (Papin. in Dig. 50, 17, 77). But, even in the regal period, there may have been one condition which did not vitiate such acts, i.e. death (see p. 29).