Inheritance law in ancient Rome was the system of law that governed the inheritance of property in Ancient Rome. This law was governed by the civil law (ius civile) of the Twelve Tables and the laws passed by the Roman Assemblies, which tended to be very strict, and law of the praetor (ius honorarium, i.e. case law), which was often more flexible. The resulting system was extremely complicated and was one of the central concerns of the whole legal system. Discussion of the laws of inheritance take up eleven of the fifty books in the Digest. 60-70% of all Roman litigation was concerned with inheritance. In the case of intestacy, Roman inheritance law had no concept of primogeniture and treated male and female children equally. However, in most cases intestacy was avoided by means of a will. Roman law recognised very broad freedom of testation, but wills had to strictly follow correct formulae and phrases in order to be valid. The will had to name an heir. In addition to this, it could name a legal guardian (tutor) for underage children, manumit slaves, and leave legacies to third parties. Over time a separate system of fideicommissa ("trusts"), which allowed greater flexibility, developed alongside the system of wills. Intestacy Intestacy occurred when someone died without any will or when they died with a will that was subsequently found to be invalid. The civil law on intestacy was laid down in the Twelve Tables. Property went first to sui heredes ("his own heirs"), who were any children of the deceased that had remained under his patria potestas ("paternal power") until his death. There was no assumption of primogeniture - all children, male and female, received an equal share of the estate. If there were no children, then agnate relatives in the male line would inherit (i.e. other children of the deceased's father, paternal grandfather, and so on). If there were none of these, then the Twelve Tables provided for the property to be inherited by the wider gens, but as the social role of the gens declined after the Early Republican period, this ceased to occur. There was no concept that an intestate property might pass to the state. Children of the deceased who had been emancipated before the deceased's death or who had passed into the potestas of another (through certain kinds of marriage or through adoption by another) were excluded