Overview

A legacy held by trust. A law that refuses to see. A battle for the soul of a Roman household. Rome, 135 CE. The sudden death of the renowned jurisconsult Cornelius Gelus Frigidianus leaves behind more than just a grieving household-it leaves a legal powder charge. Frigidianus has left his estate to his wife, Gela, a former slave, with a secret charge: a fideicommissum requesting that she restore the family home on the Caelian Hill to Tanit, a twelve-year-old girl the law refuses to recognize as his daughter. Because Tanit was born while Gela was still enslaved, Roman law views her as volgo quaesita-promiscuously begotten and fatherless. She has no legal claim to her father's name, his protection, or his property. Now, Frigidianus's distant cousins have arrived to claim what they believe is theirs by right of blood. They bring a querela inofficiosi testamenti-a ""complaint of an undutiful will""-arguing that Frigidianus was of unsound mind to favor a nameless child over his true Roman kin. Guided by a brilliant young student and the wisdom of the Sabinian school of law, Gela must stand before the Centumviral Court to defend her husband's last wishes. In a world where ""law is the art of the good and the fair,"" she must prove that pietas-the Roman virtue of duty-is found not in cold legal categories, but in the genuine bonds of a life lived together. Hereditas et Pietas is a meticulously researched legal thriller that explores the intersection of ancient Roman law and the enduring power of family. It is a story of fides (trust) in a city of strict statutes, and a woman's fight to ensure that the law finally sees the child her husband loved.

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