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.
Four people need seats in a 2x2 grid, and the puzzle mixes seating clues with a ranking clue, so the first job is to spot the two sibling pairs: Meritorius and his brother are siblings of each other, and the son and daughter are siblings of each other (their parent is Meritorius).
Clue (i) puts the daughter and the brother in the same column. That leaves Meritorius and the son to fill the other column, one in each row.
In a 2x2 grid, the two people in one column split across the two rows, and each of them is diagonal to one of the two people in the other column. So the son, sitting in the Meritorius/son column, is diagonal to exactly one of the daughter or brother, and shares his row with the other one of the two.
If the son's diagonal partner is the brother: clue (ii) says this diagonal partner is the sibling of the worst orator, so the worst orator is Meritorius (the brother's only sibling here). Since the son's diagonal partner (the brother) is in the row that does not hold the son, that row instead holds Meritorius, so Meritorius and the brother share a row. Clue (iii) then puts the best orator in that same row, which leaves only the brother.
If the son's diagonal partner is the daughter: clue (ii) then makes the worst orator the son (the daughter's only sibling here). By the same row logic, Meritorius shares a row with the daughter, while the son shares a row with the brother. Clue (iii) needs the best orator in the worst orator's row, the son's row, which again leaves only the brother.
Both consistent cases land on the same person, so the best orator is Meritorius' brother, option (B).
