A Short History of Women's Rights Part 5

[110] Codex, v, 24, 1.

[111] Codex, vi, 60, 1: Res, quae ex matris successione fuerint ad filios devolutae, ita sint in parentum potestate, ut fruendi dumtaxat habeant facultatem, dominio videlicet carum ad liberos pertinente.

[112] Neratius in Dig., 26, 1, 18.

[113] Codex, v, 35, 1.

[114] Codex, ii, 12, 18: alienam suscipere defensionem virile officium est ... filio itaque tuo, si pupillus est, tutorem pete.

[115] Ulpian, t.i.t. viii, 7_a_. Paulus, i, 4, 4.

[116] _ad Helviam matrem de consol_., xiv, 3.

[117] Other instances of women trustees will be found in Apuleius, _Apologia_ 516; Paulus in Dig; iii, 5,23 (24): avia nepotis sui negotia gessit, etc.; ibid., Marcellus, 46, 3, 48: t.i.tia c.u.m propter dotem bona mariti possideret, omnia pro domina egit, reditus exegit, etc.

[118] Tacitus, _Agricola_, 43.

[119] Frag. iur. Rom. Vat., 282.

[120] Ulpian, viii, 7a.

[121] Gaius, ii, 227. Digest, 35, 2.

[122] E.g. Pliny, _Letters_, v, 1. Codex, iii, 28, 19; id., iii, 28, 28.

Cf. Codex, iii, 29, I, and 29, 7; and Paulus in Dig., v, 2, 19. Note the extreme anxiety of the son of Prudentilla about her money as given by Apuleius, _Apologia_, 517. The estate of a mother who died intestate went to her children, not to her husband; the latter could only enjoy the interest until they arrived at maturity--Codex, vi, 60, 1; Modestinus in Dig., 38, 17, 4.

[123] E.g., Juvenal, iv, 18-21. Pliny, _Letters_, ii, 20.

[124] Digest, xiv, 1 and 3 and 8--on the actio exercitoria and inst.i.toria. Cf. Codex, iv, 25, 4: et si a muliere magister navis praepositus fuerit, etc.

[125] CIL, xiv, 326.

[126] Martial, xi, 71. Apuleius, _Metam_., v, 10. Sora.n.u.s, i, 1, ch. 1 and 2. Galen, vii, 414 (cf. xiii, 341).

[127] E.g. Suetonius, _Nero_, 27.

[128] Carmina Priapea, 18 and 27. Ulpian, xiii, 1. The Roman drama had now degenerated into mere vaudeville, mostly lascivious dancing.

Senators and their children were forbidden to marry any woman who had herself or whose father or mother had been on the stage.

[129] Martial, ii, 17, 1.

[130] Petronius, _Sat_., 45: t.i.tus noster ... habet et mulierem essedariam. This would not be strange, when we reflect that under Domitian n.o.ble ladies even fought in the arena.

[131] _Thesmophoriazusae_, 443-459.

[132] See Cicero, _pro Caecina_, 5, for an account of these business agents for women.

[133] Paulus, ii, xi; id. in Dig., 16, 1, 1; Aulus Gellius, v, 19; Pomponius in Dig., 48, 2, 1: non est permissum mulieri publico iudicio quemquam reum facere.

[134] Ulpian in Dig., 1, 16, 9. Salvius Julia.n.u.s, Pars Prima, vi: si non habebunt advocatum, ego dabo. Alexander Severus (222-235 A.D.) gave pensions to those advocates in the provinces who pleaded free of charge--Lampridius, _Alex. Severus_, 44.

[135] Cf. Paulus in Dig., 23, 3, 28. Codex, v, 13, 1, and 18, 1. Ulpian in Dig., iii, 3, 8.

[136] Gaius, i, 137.

[137] Frag. iur. Rom. Vat., 325; id., 327 (from Papinian): mulieres quoque et sine tutoris auctoritate procuratorem facere posse.

[138] Ulpian in Dig., iii, 3, 8; ibid., Paulus, iii, 3, 41.

[139] Ulpian in Dig., iii, 5, 3.

[140] Pomponius in Dig., 48, 2, 1; ibid., Papinian, 48, 2, 2--who adds that she could also do so in a case regarding the will of a mother or father's freedman.

[141] Marcia.n.u.s in Dig., 48, 2, 13.

[142] Papinian in Dig., 48, 4, 8.

[143] Juvenal, vi, 242--245.

[144] Valerius Maximus, viii, 3, 3. Appian, _B.C._, iv, 32 ff.

Quintilian, i, 1, 6.

[145] Valerius Maximus, viii, 3, 2.

[146] Quintilian, ix, 2, 20 and 34.

[147] E.g., Pliny _Letters_, i, 5, and iv, 17.

[148] E.g., Huschke, pp. 796, 797, 803, 807, 809, 810, 856, 857, 858. Or instances such as that mentioned in Digest, 48, 2, 18, where a sister brings an action to prove her brother's will a forgery.

[149] Pliny, _Letters_, vi, 33.

[150] Paulus in Dig., 22, 6, 9.

[151] Fully treated in Dig., 16, 1, and Paulus, ii, xi.

[152] Ulpian in Dig., 16, 1, 2.

[153] Aulus Gellius, xvii, 6. St. Augustine, de Civit. Dei, iii, 21: nam tunc, id est inter secundum et postremum bellum Carthaginiense, lata est etiam illa lex Voconis, ne quis heredem feminam faceret, nec unicam filiam.

[154] Dio, 56, 10.

[155] Aulus Gellius, xx, 1, 23. According to Dio, 56, 10, it was Augustus who in the year 9 A.D. gave women permission to inherit any amount.

[156] Fully treated in Dig., 35, 2. Also in Gaius, ii, 227, and Paulus, iii, viii, 1-3, and iv, 3, 3, and 5 and 6.

[157] Paulus, iv, t.i.t. v, 1. Cases in which "Complaints of Undutiful Will" were the issue will be found, e.g., in Codex, iii, 28, 1 and 19 and 28; id., iii, 29, 1 and 7.