 In 195 BC, when he was only 39 years old, Cato was elected junior consul to his old friend and patron Flaccus.During his consulship, he enacted the first two of the Porcian Laws, which expanded the protections of Roman citizens against degrading or capricious punishment under the Republic's Valerian Law.In 215 BC, at the height of the Second Punic War and at the request of the tribune of the plebs Gaius Oppius, the Oppian Law ("Lex Oppia"), intended to restrict the luxury and extravagance of women in order to save money for the public treasury, was passed.