5.3 History Of Rome Livy Analysis

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In 218 B.C.E in Rome women were in protest about a law that was passed. During the second Punic war with carthage in North Africa, Rome went through desperate circumstances. During this time the law that was passed that unsettled all the woman was the Oppian laws. This law restricted women’s use of luxury goods so to preserve resources for the war efforts. In the document 5.3, History of Rome, written by Livy , talks about the thoughts of repealing the law and how the woman felt about this. In “History of Rome” Livy speaks out about how woman are not allowed to own no more than half an ounce of gold, only wear solid colored dresses ,and to not conduct private business without a guardian. A law was passed during the war where woman couldn’t own anything luxury. Due to this, woman started to protest this law wanting more right. Woman and men gather in this forum to vote and hear about weather the law stands still or is repealed. Livy Gives a speech about how the law should still stand. He says in this speech “As soon as they begin to be your equals, they will become your …show more content…

This is interesting to see how far back in history women were still trying to get rights and veto laws that were set against them. Men were always trying to keep themselves in power afraid of what women would do if they were treated as equals. This passage is geared toward other men and has a bias against women. This has a bias stand point due to there is no written words from a woman from this era stating how they felt and how they were treated. The passage is written as if women are the bad people and will always want more if given the opportunity. The man who spoke is geared to presway the listeners to think the way he does. He wants all other men to feel that women don’t deserve the rights and if you give them, they will become superior over the