''Lex Voconia'' (The Voconian Law) was a law established in

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

in 169 BC. Introduced by Q. Voconius Saxa with support from

Cato the Elder Marcus Porcius Cato (; 234–149 BC), also known as Cato the Censor ( la, Censorius), the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write histo ...

, Voconius being

tribune of the people Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( la, tribunus plebis) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of ...

in that year, this law prohibited those who owned property valued at 100,000 asses (or perhaps

sesterces The ''sestertius'' (plural ''sestertii''), or sesterce (plural sesterces), was an ancient Roman coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occasions. During the Roman Empire it was a large brass coin. The na ...

) 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 the

Comitia Centuriata The Centuriate Assembly (Latin: ''comitia centuriata'') of the Roman Republic was one of the three voting assemblies in the Roman constitution. It was named the Centuriate Assembly as it originally divided Roman citizens into groups of one hundred ...

, and thus the minimum qualification for the

Equestrian Order The ''equites'' (; literally "horse-" or "cavalrymen", though sometimes referred to as "knights" in English) constituted the second of the property-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian o ...

. 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 to

Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, or ...

was sumptuary in that it limited the wealth available to women, who were presumed to expend it on useless luxury goods. The law only applied to inheritances by testament and did not affect the intestate law of succession of women, although later this was limited to inheriting to the third degree. The ''Lex Voconia'' 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 A ''fideicommissum'' is a type of bequest in which the beneficiary is encumbered to convey parts of the decedent's estate to someone else. For example, if a father leaves the family house to his firstborn, on condition that they will bequeath it to ...

''. The second provision was essentially voided by the ''

Lex Falcidia Publius Falcidius was an ancient Roman Tribune of the Plebs in 40 BCE, of the ''gens'' Falcidia. He was the author of the ''Lex Falcidia de Legatis'', a law on inheritance which remained in force in the sixth century CE, since it was incorporated ...

''. Legislation under Augustus, in particular the

Lex Papia Poppaea The ''Lex Papia et Poppaea'' was a Roman law introduced in 9 AD to encourage and strengthen marriage. It included provisions against adultery and against celibacy after a certain age and complemented and supplemented Augustus' ''Lex Iulia de ma ...

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

Roman Law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...

List of Roman laws This is a partial list of Roman laws. A Roman law (Latin: ''lex'') is usually named for the sponsoring legislator and designated by the adjectival form of his ''gens'' name ('' nomen gentilicum''), in the feminine form because the noun ''lex'' (pl ...

External links

The Roman Law Library, incl. ''Leges''Entry from Harry Thurston Peck, "Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities" (1898) (from the Perseus Project)Entry from William Smith, LL.D., William Wayte, G. E. Marindin, eds., "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities" (1890) (from the Perseus Project)

References

{{reflist Roman law 169 BC