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however, is a forceful reminder that, strictly speaking, Cicero is at most representative of his own generation. In order fully to comprehend the dynamics of Roman cult practices, one must examine the antecedents of the Ciceronian regulations as well as the changes that the cult experienced in succeeding centuries.
The latter can be accomplished with relative ease because of the large number of pertinent inscriptions that have survived, but before we turn to them, one point in the Ciceronian passage just cited must first be stressed. This is his comment that a person who receives as much of an estate as all the natural heirs combined also takes their place in ritual matters, and is held liable above all else for supplying his deceased benefactor with the expected offerings. Here Cicero is alluding to a complex process of social and legal change that had virtually played itself out by the end of the Republic. During the preceding 150 years, within the Roman elite people chose in increasing numbers to bequeath significant portions of their property to individuals outside their immediate family. In an attempt to curb this practice, a measure was passed in 169 B.C. (the lex Voconia) that forbade any single legacy to exceed the amount left to the natural heirs (Gai. Inst. 2.226). This law was so easily circumvented, however, that still another measure (the lex Falcidia) was passed in 40 B.C., this time expressly stipulating that at least 25 per cent of any estate must be set aside for these heirs (Gai. Inst. 2.227; Dig. 35.2.1.pr; cf. Plin. Ep. 5.1).67 Among the elite, therefore, the link between kinship and property thus became increasingly attenuated during the middle and late Republic, and as a result the presumption that one's natural heirs would automatically perform the necessary sacrifices at the tomb also became increasingly unwarranted. Since testamentary legacies became progressively more commonplace in the first and second centuries A.D., however, we might well expect the epigraphic evidence to reveal that the role of property in securing tomb offerings was still more pronounced during this period than it had been in Cicero's day. This is precisely the case. Specifically, the inscriptions disclose that with the passage of time more and more Romans sought to guarantee their grave offerings in future generations by conditioning the use of their property upon strict adherence to a minutely detailed set of demands. One of the