Institutio Oratoria

Well, then, is everyone who fails to appear in defence of his father to be disinherited? Are there no exceptions to the rule? At this point the following arguments will spontaneously suggest themselves.

Is an infant liable to the law?

For we may imagine a case where the son is an infant and has failed to appear in his father's support. Again

does the law apply to a man who was away from home or absent on military service or on an embassy?

We have gained a considerable amount of ground; for we have established the fact that a man may fail to appear for his father and still inherit.

Our declaimer, who has thought out this line of argument, must now pass over like a Latin flute-player, as Cicero says, [*](Pro Mur. xii. 26. The flute-player went from one actor to another, according as each required accompaniment. ) to the side of the eloquent son and reply,

Granted, but you are not an infant, you were not away from home nor absent on military service.

Is there any answer to this except the previous reply,

I am an uneducated man

?