684 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
CHAPTER II. 
§1 The first feature of the Last Will and Testament is usually 
an attempt to tell who the testator is. This feature, at least in 
a rudimentary form, survives in the legal document of today. 1 
In earlier times, when directories were unknown and proper 
names themselves were often indefinite, there was a strong ten¬ 
dency to expand this explanation into a considerable account 
of the testator, and when the testator thought he had reason 
for commemorating his own works, he might take this occa¬ 
sion to give to posterity a record of his deeds. An example 
of such a commemoration may be seen in the Will of Augustus 
Caesar , 2 * This document has come to us in a somewhat frag¬ 
mentary state, but it gives, as it is, a good idea of what form the 
Roman Will might take during the earlier years of our era. 
In this will the succession of Tiberius is provided for, and a 
considerable number of bequests both public and private are 
made. Accompanying this part of the will were four other 
books, one providing for the ceremonies of the testator’s funeral, 
another containing an account of his deeds to be engraved on 
his mausoleum, a third, a statement of the condition of the em¬ 
pire, and a fourth, a set of instructions for his successors. The 
account of his life, called his Testament, was found actually in¬ 
scribed on a marble in a ruined temple in the town of Ancyre.® 
The habit of incorporating an account of one’s life in one’s 
will was not only common in ancient times but has persisted 
down to a rather late day. It will suffice here to mention only 
a few examples. The will of Michael de l’Hospital (1573) 
is a history of his life together with a disposition of his prop¬ 
erty 4 . That of Pierre Pithou (1596) 5 is purely an account of 
his actions. The will of Brantome (1614) 6 as well as that of 
i Furnivall passim. 2 Peignot, I., 11. 3 This was found and trans¬ 
lated by George Perrot in the xvi century. For analysis see P. La- 
rousse, Dictionnaire Universelle, Paris, 1876, XV, 6. * Peignot, I, 224. 
« Ibid, 261. e Ibid. 280. 
