I found an interesting parallel to an earlier morality law debate in the Roman republic in 195 BC. The older Lex Oppia (215 BC) had mandated that women not be ostentatious in their dress. This was done for two reasons: Modesty and equality. Marcius Porcius Cato had been the defender of the Lex Oppia at that time. I posted the points of the debate a while ago.

Fast forward to my study of Italian history and I find this law passed by Frederick II (1296-1337) in an attempt to improve morality among his subjects. One of his General Ordinances from 1310, required modest dress for women. The purpose seems to have been again, to reduce ostentatious displays of wealth and expense, which would foster modesty, and importantly, reduce family rivalries. Perhaps he felt the times merited such an approach, but as in the law 1500 years earlier, the women bore all the brunt of the law’s rigor. I have no record of any debate over the law, as we do with Livy’s accounting of the debate earlier, but the reasons stated were essentially the exact same as the earlier law. 

I just found that interesting.