IL TESTAMENTO SEGRETO ROMANO E IL SENATOCONSULTO NERONIANO

The text entitled “Il testamento segreto romano e il Senatoconsulto Neroniano” [“The SecretTestament in Rome and the Neronian Senatoconsultum”] is the result of a report I gave duringthe X Ionian-Polish Conference on the topic “Il segreto nei sistemi giuridici” [“The secret in legalsystems”], held in Warsaw at Uczelnia Lazarskego University on 31 May 2017. The topic in questionconcerns a kind of secret in Roman law that is more significant than ever in will and testamentmatters. On the contrary, from a dynamic viewpoint, it presents a characteristic reversal: frommore ancient forms of intended maximum publicity, we switch to the protection of the greatestpossible secrecy surrounding a deed with which the testator manifested and laid down his or herwill. The subject of the report concerns the problem related to a discussion between some scholarsabout the secrecy of the will for aes et libram in the classical age: from the exaggeration of believingthat the secrecy of the Roman testament is set per aes et libram by the Neronian senatusconsultumwe then move on to the opposite exaggeration of an unjustified devaluation of the news on thesenatusconsultum, stating that the will could never be secret, because until the final closure andsealing, the tablets remained open and accessible to the witnesses. Nevertheless, upon readingthe analysed sources, it is quite clear that even in the classical era, the secret “librale” will andtestament was recognised and conferred legal protection thanks to the Neronian Sc. and that theconstitution of Theodosius only sought to restore the caution in ancient law that the inexperienceof posterity and the presumption of the witnesses had gradually changed.