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With regard to oaths,1 parties either offer to
take an oath themselves, or refuse to accept the oath
of their opponent, demand that their opponent
should take an oath or refuse to comply with a
similar demand when proffered to themselves. To
offer to take an oath unconditionally without
demanding that one's opponent should likewise take
an oath is as a rule a sign of bad faith.
1 An oath might be taken by one of the parties as an alternative to evidence. In court such an oath might be taken only on the proposal of the adversary; the litigant might not swear on his own initiative, although an oath might be taken voluntarily before the case came into court. The matter of the oath rested with the profferer, and the taking of such a proffered oath meant victory for the swearer.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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