[15] In primitive times a father can sell his son into slavery.  If the buyer free the son, the son reenters his father’s control (patria potestas).

Here apparently we have an old formula surviving in a sham triple sale, whereby a descendant is liberated from the authority of an ascendant, or after a triple transfer and a triple manumission the son is freed from his father and stands in his own right (sui iuris).

[16] Otherwise (an interpretation probably, perhaps not a paraphrase):  “After ten months from [the father’s] death a child born shall not be admitted into a legal inheritance.”

[17] “Full age” for females is 25 years.  For keeping women of full age under a guardian almost no reason of any worth can be urged.  The common belief, that because of the levity of their disposition (propter animi levitatem) they often are deceived and therefore may be guided by a guardian, seems more plausible than true.

According to Roman Law of this period a woman never has legal independence:  if she be not under the power (potestas) of her father, she is dependent on the control (manus) of her husband or, unmarried and fatherless, she is subject to the governance (tutela) of her guardian.

[18] Agnates (agnati) are relatives by blood or through adoption on male side only; cognates (cognati) are blood-relatives on either male or female side.  The family of the ius civile is the agnatic family; the family of the ius gentium is the cognatic family.

[19] Beside a guardian (tutor) for a child of certain age (sixth statute of this Table; cf. p. 7, n. 21) there is provided also a guardian (custos, later curator) for a lunatic and for a prodigal (seventh statute of this Table).

[20] Clansmen (gentiles) are persons all belonging to the same clan (gens) as the deceased and of course include agnates, when these exist.

[21] Boys between the ages of 7 and 15, girls between the ages of 7 and 13, women neither under paternal power (patria potestas) nor under marital control (in manu mariti).

[22] Another version of this provision reads thus:  “Debts bequeathed by inheritance shall be divided by automatic liability (ipso iure) proportionally [among the heirs], after the details shall have been investigated.”

[23] That is, the judicial division of an estate by a iudex among the disagreeing coheirs.

[24] That is, double the proportionate part of the price or of the things transferred.

[25] This statute is set in Table I by some scholars.

[26] This probably means that a foreigner resident in Roman territory never can obtain rights over any property simply by long possession (usu-capio) thereof; but the meaning of auctoritas in this clause is disputed.  At any rate usucapio is peculiar to Roman citizens.