her children, but must ask the
court to appoint one upon the death of her husband.[113] This was to
prevent possible mismanagement and because "to undertake the legal
defence of others is the office of men."[114] But she was permitted to
assume complete charge of her children's property during their minority
and enjoy the usufruct; only she must render an account of the goods
when the children arrived at maturity.[115] We have many instances of
women who managed their children's patrimony and did it exceedingly
well. "You managed our patrimony in such wise," writes Seneca to his
mother,[116] "that you exerted yourself as if it were yours and yet
abstained from it as if it belonged to others."[117] Agricola,
father-in-law of Tacitus, had such confidence in his wife's business
ability that he made her co-heir with his daughter and the Emperor
Domitian.[118] A mother could get an injunction to restrain extravagance
on the part of her children.[119] Women could not adopt.[120]

Married women, spinsters, and widows had as much freedom as men in
disposing of property by will. If there were children, the Roman law put
certain limitations on the testator's powers, whether man or woman. By
the Falcidian Law no one was allowed to divert more than three fourths
of his estate from his (or her) natural heirs.[121] But for any adequate
cause a woman could disinherit her children completely; and there are
many instances of this extant both in the Law Books and in the
literature of the day.[122]

Single women had grown absolutely unshackled and even their guardians
had become a mere formality, as the words of Gaius, already quoted (page
8) prove. That they had complete disposal of their property is proved
furthermore by the numerous complaints in Roman authors about the
sycophants who flattered and toadied the wealthy ladies with an eye to
being remembered in their wills.[123] For it is evident that if these
women had not had the power freely to dispose of their own property,
there would have been no point in paying them such assiduous court. The
legal age of maturity was now twenty-five for both male and female.

[Sidenote: Women engaged in business pursuits.]

Women engaged freely in all business pursuits. We find them in all kinds
of retail trade and commerce,[124] as members of guilds,[125] in
medicin[126] innkeeping,[127] in vaudevil[128]; there were even
female barbers[129] and charioteer[130]. Examples of women who toiled
f