Roman women’s public demonstrations could overturn sumptuary legislation.

Evidence

The Oppian Law that banned luxury was voted when Hannibal threatened Rome; when the danger passed, women demanded its abrogation; in a famous speech, Cato asked that it be upheld: but a demonstration by matrons assembled in the public square carried the repeal against him. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 196

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the immodesty essay’s Lex Oppia material with the outcome — the matrons’ public-square protest won repeal against Cato.
• CANDY: Roman women organized a street demonstration that defeated Cato’s defense of a luxury law — a quotable ancient protest anecdote.
• XREF: connects to: Women church members could publicly withhold endorsement from ministers who exploited them — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 810
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Women church members could publicly withhold endorsement from ministers who exploited them — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 810