The testamentary calata comitia met twice a year, probably on fixed days.[891] It has been a disputed question whether the oldest form of testament here referred to required a vote of the people. Rubino[892] strongly upheld the negative on the ground (1) of analogy with the procedure in inaugurations, (2) of analogy with other forms of testament, none of which required a vote, (3) of the word testamentum itself, which refers to witnessing, (4) of the conviction that the patricians would not leave to the popular assembly the making of private law, (5) on the authority of Theophilus,[893] who mentions the people’s witnessing of the testament, (6) on the statement of Gellius[894] that wills of the kind were made “in populi contione.” Against this reasoning may be urged (1) the analogy from the adrogatio, (2) the analogy from the testamentary adoption, to both of which cases the simple testament was similar, and both of which required a vote of the people,[895] (3) the consideration that the act of witnessing in the assembly did not necessarily exclude a vote, (4) the statement of Gaius[896] that calata comitia were convoked “for making”—not for witnessing—testaments, (5) the circumstance that the contio was often a preliminary stage of the voting assembly[897] in addition to the fact that pontifical language applies the term to comitia in general.[898] These arguments offset all the points offered by Rubino, unless it be the fourth, which is a purely subjective consideration. Arguments (1), (2), and (4) are especially effective for establishing the fact of a vote in the case under consideration. But the problem can be most satisfactorily solved (6) by comparative investigation. In the constitution of the early Indo-European family the estate belonged jointly to all the male members, and for that reason could not be given away by the pater.[899] The primitive Germans accordingly made no wills, but left their property to their children, or in failure of children to the near kin.[900] In Attica the right to bequeath was instituted by a law of Solon, which allowed it to those only who had no legitimate sons;[901] in Sparta the right was introduced by Epitadeus, perhaps early in the fourth century B.C.[902] Testaments were unknown in Gortyn at the time when the _Twelve Tables_ of this city were published,[903] and similar conditions existed in other states of Greece.[904] The rule holds, too, for ancient India.[905] The Slavic householder could not alienate his land without the consent of the community.[906] As there is no reason to assume a more advanced condition for primitive Rome, we may conclude that, as indicated above, the calata comitia not only witnessed but ratified testaments.[907]