Voconia Lex

A law passed by Q. Voconius Saxa, tribune of the people (B.C. 169), and containing two provisions: (1) that no one enrolled as having a property of 100,000 asses ($1000) should make any woman his heir; and

(2) that no such person should leave to another a sum greater than that which the regular heirs were to receive. The intention of this law was to curb the extravagance of women by limiting their pecuniary means (Gell. xvii. 6; xx. 1). It was evaded in various ways: (a) by a person avoiding enrollment in the census; and (b) by the creation of trusts (fidei commissa) for the benefit of women. See Vangerow, Lex Voconia (1863); and cf. the article sumptuariae leges.