The Repeal of the Lex Oppia: Women’s Property Rights and the Fear of Female Power the Transformation of Rome from Republic to Empire: 133-20 BCE

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211220.264How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Roman; Women; Lex Oppia; Sumptuary Law; Feminism

Abstract

This paper discusses the significance of the repeal of the Lex Oppia in women’s rights in the Roman world. The Lex Oppia was a sumptuary law that restricted women’s rights to adornments during wartime. After the debate between Cato and Lucius Valerius, and women’s effort in the political protest, the law was repealed. Nevertheless, the rhetorics Cato and Valerius adopted appealed to patriarchal dominance. Similar means of protest were adopted later in Hortensia’s repeal on taxation on women. While sumptuary laws on women were for wartime emergency, these laws were ultimately a means to curtail female power and strengthen male dominance. And thus, the abrogation of sumptuary laws is a way for women to gain power through economic means — a step forward for women’s rights.

Copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Peixuan Xu
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/12/24
TI  - The Repeal of the Lex Oppia: Women’s Property Rights and the Fear of Female Power the Transformation of Rome from Republic to Empire: 133-20 BCE
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 4th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1562
EP  - 1567
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211220.264
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211220.264
ID  - Xu2021
ER  -