Religious Intolerance in the Later Roman Empire - Bad request ...

extremes, sentiments or punishments. As such, it would probably be safer to draw the
conclusion that there were indeed Eunomian eunuchs whom this law was specifically
targeting.
The law itself substantially consists of only one long (seventy two word)
sentence, but with an opening sentence of nine words that effectively summed it up:
“the Eunomian eunuchs shall not have the liberty either to make a testament or to
take under a testament.” Moreover, the law was to be retrospective; it was to include
all those “still living and no person shall be protected by the privilege of any past will.”
It also implied that Eunomian eunuchs were not even allowed to possess property:
they “shall not have the liberty to possess property or to petition for the possession of
such property.” Pharr indicates that the end of this clause should also read “as heirs;”
perhaps that is the sense of the law, but it does not actually say that. He says the same
when at the end of the law which orders: “all property which may appear to belong or
to be about to belong to such persons shall be vindicated as caducous to the resources
of our fisc.” The use of caducous (caduca) appears to imply that Pharr is right.
Although it has survived as quite a short law, it was quite thorough and named the
types of inheritors who would be ineligible: “as a beneficiary of a trust, as a legatee, as
beneficiary of a secret trust fund, or under any name which the order of the law has
established in such matters.” Finally the law stated that “the aforesaid persons shall
have nothing in common with the rest of mankind.” 225 No punishments were given
for any infractions of this law.
So the Eunomian eunuchs were to be treated even worse than the
Manicheans (CTh. 16.5.7) with regard to their ability to inherit and bequeath
225 eunom iani spadon es nec faciendi n ec adipiscendi habeant licentiam testam enti. quod circa om nes, quos
v iv os lex inv enerit, v olum us custodiri nec quem quam praeteritae cuiuspiam v oluntatis priv ilegio defensari,
cum , seu facta prius testam enta seu infecta doceantur, post han c nostri oraculi sanctionem non habeant
possidendi licentiam , non petendi, non etiam relinquendi heredem nom ine prin cipali, non fideicom m issario,
non legatario, non tacito fideicom m isso v el quam cum que in huiuscem odi negotiis nuncupationem iuris ordo
constituit: sed om nia, quae talium esse v el futura esse constiterit, ut caduca fisci nostri v iribus v indicentur.
nihil ad sum m um habeant com m une cum reliquis
239