Note 200 — BOOK XXXII
Evelyn S. (Evelyn Shirley) Shuckburgh translation
The two sisters were both named Aemilia; the elder was married to Q. Aelius Tubero, the younger to M. Porcius Cato, elder son of the Censor. The daughters were prevented from taking the inheritance of their mother’s property by the lex Voconia (B.C. 174), in virtue of which a woman could not be a haeres, nor take a legacy greater than that of the haeres, or of all the haeredes together. The object of the law was to prevent the transference of the property of one gens to another on a large scale. It was evaded (1) by trusteeships, Gaius, 2, 274; Plutarch, Cic. 41: (2) by the assent of the haeres, Cic. de Off. 2, § 55. And it was relaxed by Augustus in favour of mothers of three children, Dio Cass. 56, 10. See also Cicero de Sen. § 14; de legg. 2, 20; de Rep. 3, 10; Verr. 2, 1, 42; Pliny, Panegyr. 42; Livy, Ep. 41.