- Lex Voconia
"Lex Voconia" (The Voconian Law) was a law established in
ancient Rome in169 BC .Introduced by Q. Voconius Saxa with support from
Cato the Elder , Voconius beingtribune of the people in that year, this law prohibited those who owned property valued at 100,000 asses (or perhaps sesterces) from making a woman their heir. This particular limit was not arbitrary but was apparently the traditional property qualification for admission to the highest class in theComitia Centuriata , and thus the minimum qualification for the Equestrian Order. In addition, it prohibited extraordinary legacies in a will of a greater value than the inheritance of the ordinary heirs. This intention of this legislation according toGellius was sumptuary in that it limited the wealth available to women, who were presumed to expend it on useless luxury goods. It was evaded by means of avoiding registration in the census, which entailed the loss of some civil rights, or by the common Roman form of trust known as a "fideicommissum ". The second provision was essentially voided by theLex Falcidia . Legislation under Augustus, in particular theLex Papia Poppaea relaxed the first provision as well, granting full inheritance rights to married women who were mothers of three children (if born free) or of four children (if a freedwoman).Relevant articles
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Roman Law
*List of Roman laws External links
* [http://web.upmf-grenoble.fr/Haiti/Cours/Ak The Roman Law Library, incl. "Leges"]
* [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999%2e04%2e0062&query=id%3dvoconia%2dlex#id,voconia-lex Entry from Harry Thurston Peck, "Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities" (1898) (from the Perseus Project)]
* [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/////ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0063;query=id%3D%236915;layout=;loc=vocatio-cn Entry from William Smith, LL.D., William Wayte, G. E. Marindin, eds., "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities" (1890) (from the Perseus Project)]
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