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Roman Women and the Oppian Law
‘We have not kept our women individually under control, we now dread them collectively’, said Cato the Elder, as Rome’s women took to the streets to protest the unfair lex Oppia. The women of ancient Rome took to the streets in protest in 195 BC.
A series of laws were implemented in this period of financial crisis, including those which saw the doubling and tripling of taxes, trust funds borrowed for use by the state and citizens’ private property diverted to public use. The events that it set in motion on the streets of Rome created a precedent which saw Roman women stand up for their rights and make their voices heard. Opposition to the repeal of the lex Oppi a initiated several lines of defence; Cato the Elder lamented the Roman husbands’ lost control over their wives.
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