Institutio Oratoria

An example of this may be found in the theme which runs as follows.

A wife has stated to her husband that her stepson has attempted to seduce her and that a time and place have been assigned for their meeting: the son has brought the same charge against his stepmother, with the exception that a different time and place are mentioned. The father finds the son in the place mentioned by the wife, and the wife in the place mentioned by the son. He divorces her, and then, as she says nothing in her own defence, disinherits the son.

No defence can be put forward for the son which is not also a defence of the stepmother.

However, what is common to both sides of the case will be stated, and then arguments will be drawn from a comparison of

the characters of the two parties, from the order in which they laid information against each other and from the silence of the divorced wife.