B Prohibitions on holding public office
Just as women were banned from representing others in court [Part V.A], they also could not themselves serve as judges in court cases or hold public office, both of which ipso facto involved representing others.
As the jurist Paulus (writing in the third century) realized, the real reason for this restriction was that it had been instituted by Romans in the long-ago past, and respect for the “customs of the ancestors” (mos maiorum) was so great that it over-rode contemporary social realities. This is from one of his books on the Praetor's Edict:D.5.1.12.2 (Paulus): However, not all people are able to be appointed as judges (iudices) by those who have the right to appoint judges; for some are prevented by law from being judges, some by nature, and some by custom. By nature: like the deaf-mute, and the man who is permanently mad, and the minor, because they lack judgment. The man who has been removed from the Senate is prevented by law. Women and slaves are prevented by custom, not because they do not have judgment, but because it has been accepted that they do not discharge civil duties.
Restrictions on women's public and legal activities are neatly summed up by Ulpian in this passage:
D.50.17.2 (Ulpian): Women are removed from all civil or public functions and therefore are neither able to be judges nor to undertake a magistracy nor to bring a prosecution nor to intervene on behalf of another nor to be procurators. 1: Likewise, (a male) who has not reached puberty ought to stay away from all civil functions.
In general, women were not legally banned from any business occupation, with the apparent exception of banking:
D.2.13.12 (Callistratus): Women seem to be removed from the service of banking, since that is man's work.
This ban was probably a result of the senatusconsultum Vlleianum, which advised women not to provide surety for others' debts [ Part IV.D; Gardner 1993, 99—100]. It applied only to the formal profession of banking; women could — and frequently did — act as go-betweens in business deals, and lend and borrow money, as seen in many imperial rescripts and papyri [Arjava 1996, 249]. A woman is even attested in the position of tax-farmer, responsible for collecting revenues for the imperial treasury [D.49.14.47 pr; Gardner 1986a, 236].