ABSTRACT
We turn now to the first half of the second century BC. The transition from the previous chapter to this one is not altogether abrupt. When we come to consider the repeal of the lex Oppia, the episode which generated the most striking manifestation of women’s power in the whole of Roman history, we will recall the public appearances of women during the Second Punic War, and will see the events of 195 as an intensification, though in a much more goal-orientated fashion, of the earlier manifestations.
