FRATER A FRATRE.

For it is equitable that the father be held regarding the peculium from the contract of the son Digest 14.1.1. Therefore it is natural Digest 46.3.95.2 because one contracting with a slave or a son-in-power looks not so much at the person of the one with whom he contracts, as at the peculium itself, which is the father's or the master's Digest 15.1.32. Therefore, just as when a son is obligated to a stranger, the father is held both civilly and naturally because, while he assigns a peculium, he permits contracting and is considered to consent to the son's contracts: so when a brother is obligated to a brother, the father is held naturally. For why should he acquire from the person of one, rather than be held from the person of the other? Indeed, it is according to nature that both advantages and disadvantages should follow the same person Digest 50.17.10. Someone might perhaps say: Therefore the father will be both creditor and debtor. I concede this. However, no one can owe to himself. And this is also truly said: but it pertains nothing to the institution. The father is a creditor and a debtor: yet not of himself, but a creditor of the debtor son and a debtor of the other creditor son. What prohibits one from being a debtor to one and a creditor to another? Again, someone will object: if the father is a creditor and a debtor, then...