Lex Oppia
The Lex Oppia is a Roman law proposed by C. Oppius during the 2nd Punic War and passed by the people after a Senate decision . The law of 215 BC BC restricted the freedoms of Roman women. 195 BC It was repealed again six years after the end of the war against Hannibal and the Carthaginians (201 BC). The only source on this law and its consequences is the much later living Roman historian Livy (Ab urbe condita).
Reasons for enacting the law
When Hannibal in 216 BC When he won the legendary Battle of Cannae against the Roman legions in BC , he inflicted the worst defeat in their history on the Romans, killing an estimated 50,000 soldiers. Almost every family in Rome had a loss to report. The magnitude of these losses was demonstrated by the fact that some families had lost their pater familias , who was the head and holder of authority over the family, including slaves and clients.
Notwithstanding this serious crisis, many women from the nobility and the knightly class apparently presented their wealth in an ostentatious manner in the form of purple robes and gold jewelry or pleasure rides with their horse-drawn carts (see also consumption of status ). C. Oppius found this behavior inappropriate after the defeat and tried to prevent it through this law. The women should again practice the customs of their ancestors such as modesty, frugality and moderation. In this way he also tried to blur the social differences between the population groups, perhaps because the losses of husbands and sons were even more devastating for plebeian families than for the upper classes; perhaps also because an escalation of rivalries within the elite should be prevented.
Wearing jewelry
Livy writes: “... No woman was allowed to wear more than half an ounce of gold or a colored robe and drive a horse drawn cart in Rome or a country town or less than a mile from there, unless on the occasion of an act of sacrifice on behalf of the state . ” ( Ab urbe condita 34,1,1–2). According to Livy, this law was violated in 195 BC. A demonstration of women to repeal the Lex Oppia. With peace and prosperity restored by that time, the richer women no longer wanted to be restricted by a law of war. It was actually overturned, although several senators, including Cato the Elder , warned that it would escalate rivalry within the nobility as women would now flaunt their family's wealth.