The Roman senator Meritorius, his brother, his son, and his daughter have varying oratory skill levels. They are seated in rows and columns as shown in the figure with exactly one person sitting in each box. It is known that
(i) Meritorius' daughter and his brother are seated in the same column.
(ii) His son is seated diagonally across the sibling of the worst orator.
(iii) The best and worst orators are seated in the same row.
Who is the best orator?
Show Hint
Identify the two sibling pairs first, then use the diagonal clue to pin down who the worst orator's sibling must be.
Step 1: List the two sibling pairs.
Meritorius and his brother are siblings of each other.
The son and the daughter are siblings of each other, since both are Meritorius' children.
Step 2: Fix the columns using clue (i).
The daughter and the brother sit in one column, so Meritorius and the son must share the other column.
Step 3: Test each candidate as the best orator and check for contradictions.
Try Meritorius as best orator: clue (ii) needs the son diagonal to a sibling of the worst orator, but no placement of the remaining three people keeps clues (ii) and (iii) both true at once with Meritorius as best, so this case is dropped.
Try the son as best orator: the same kind of check fails, since the son's own row and diagonal position cannot simultaneously satisfy clues (ii) and (iii) here either.
Try the daughter as best orator: this also breaks clue (ii), because the worst orator that clue (ii) forces never ends up sharing the daughter's row as clue (iii) demands.
Try the brother as best orator: placing the son diagonal to either the brother or the daughter, and applying clue (ii) to name the worst orator, always leaves that worst orator sharing a row with the brother, so clue (iii) holds cleanly in both layouts.
Final Answer:
Only the brother survives the check in every valid layout, so Meritorius' brother is the best orator, option (B).
