ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the legal sanctions in Roman law that could be imposed on anyone deemed to have cross-dressed; the personal motivations for doing so could be most disparate, and will not be investigated. There are no ordinances explicitly prohibiting cross-dressing in Western countries, but the regulation of dress persists through a range of public forms of governance. Arrests still occur for cross-dressers, but on a charge of public indecency and disorderly conduct, or if the act constitutes a threat to public order. An Italian law prohibited individuals from assembling 'disguised' in public places; in other words, it forbade individuals to 'masquerade' for unlawful purposes; this law was repealed in 1981. The case reported by Seneca the Elder therefore confirms that there was a lack of interest on the part of the law in conduct which could be considered immoral, such as cross-dressing.
