Testamentary adoption seems to be used in situations not significantly different from inter vivos cases. The main difference is in the timing. There is still a focus on choosing close kin or close friends. The purpose also remains similar. An elite testator has the capacity to provide his testamentary heir with financial resources and some of the attributes of his social standing, such as his domicile, slaves, freedmen, and political connections, whether in the form of clientela or ties to other influential Romans. Those of lesser status would have less to offer, but the situation was generically similar. From the perspective of the parties to a testamentary adoption, there was no need to develop a close personal relationship, but in most cases this probably existed in any case. Relatives could be suspected of being attentive to their childless kin with ulterior motives, as will be seen in the case of Atticus, who thereby secured his maternal uncle's estate.

adoption by maternal kin

Maternal relatives are quite prominent as testamentary adopters. In one of the earliest known cases, the maternal grandfather was the adopter. The adoptee was a son of P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica (pr. 93 bc), and his mother, Licinia, was the daughter of the orator L. Licinius Crassus (cos. 95 bc). The orator died in 82 bc, a victim of the Marians, so this must have been the date of the inheritance (Münzer [1999] 255–6; cf. Kunst [2005] 141).