Rome, 18 B.C. (Suetonius, Life of Augustus 34. L)
He reformed the laws and completely overhauled some of them, such as the sumptuary law, that on adultery and chastity, that on bribery, and marriage of the various classes.
Having shown greater severity in the emendation of this last than the others, as a result of the agitation of its opponents he was unable to get it approved except by abolishing or mitigating part of the penalty, conceding a three-year grace-period (before remarriage) and increasing the rewards (for having children).
Nevertheless, when, during a public show the order of knights asked him with insistence to revoke it, he summoned the children of Germanicus, [18] holding some of them near him and setting others on their father’s knee; and in so doing he gave the demonstrators to understand through his affectionate gestures and expressions that they should not object to imitating that young man’s example.
Moreover, when he found out that the law was being sidestepped through engagements to young girls [19] and frequent divorces, he put a time limit on engagement and clamped down on divorce.