Roman senators, who are generally large landowners, had been forbidden to engage in large-scale business after 218, probably as a consequence of the war with Carthage.

During the days of national catastrophe after the Battle of Cannae, the Lex Oppia decree of 215, instituted by Gaius Oppius, a tribune of the plebs during the consulship of Fabius Maximus and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (consul 215 BCE), is the first of a series of sumptuary laws.

It restricts not only a woman’s wealth, but also her display of wealth.

Specifically, it forbids any woman to possess more than half an ounce of gold, to wear a multicolored garment (particularly those trimmed in purple), or to ride in an animal-drawn vehicle in the city or any town or within a mile thereof, except in the case of public religious festivals.

Primarily an economic measure in response to serious financial issues during the Second Punic War, the restrictions it imposes lay the framework for later sumptuary legislation designed to control expenditure on extravagance for social rather than economic reasons.