🔺 WOMEN

“At this time the wives were so bold as to surround the house of the Bruti, who were prepared to intercede against the repeal of the Oppian Law, which the women wanted to be removed - because it did not permit them to wear a coloured garments, nor to own above half an ounce of gold, nor to ride in a carriage to any place within a mile from the city, unless it was for sacrifices. And they obtained that the law, which had been kept for more than twenty years, should be abolished. For the men of that age did not foresee where the persistent desire for novel adornments was heading, nor how far the women's boldness would tend, once they had vanquished the law. For if they could have foreseen the contrivances of female cunning, that brings in something of extravagant novelty every day, they would have stopped the progress of luxury at its very beginning.”

(The Oppian Law was repealed in 195 BC. The law had been in place for twenty years prior to its abolishment).

Valerius Maximus