Institutio Oratoria

The law about children who have been exposed affords scope for emotional treatment, while the decision of the court turns on the law of disinheritance. [*]( The first law is strictly irrelevant to the case, but can be employed by the son to stir the jury's emotions. He owes a deep debt of gratitude to his poor foster-father, and his love for his foster-sister is based on life-long acquaintance. The father, on the other hand, will urge that his payment for his son's nurture has discharged the debt due to the poor man and that his son is once more under the patria potestas. The introduction of the first law thus enables the pleader to introduce fresh arguments and is thus said to link up the arguments. ) On the other hand, a question may turn on more laws than one, as in cases of ἀντινομία or contradictory laws. [*](cp. III. vi. 46. and vii. ) It is by consideration of such points as these that we shall be able to determine the point of law out of which the dispute arises.