Publius Annius Asellus left everything to his only daughter, and the praetor Verres wrote an edict to take it from her

The lex Voconia of 169 BC barred citizens registered in the top census class, with property of 100,000 asses or more, from naming a woman as heir. Publius Annius Asellus, a senator, had not been registered in the census, so the law did not bind him, and he named his only daughter heir to all his property. He died while Gaius Sacerdos was praetor. Cicero says Gaius Verres, the praetor-elect, met Lucius Annius, the substitute heir named after the daughter, and told him the inheritance could be handed over by edict. Verres's edict applied the Voconian rule to anyone who "has made or shall have made" such a will, so it reached back to wills already made. Verres also sent privately to the girl's mother, and her guardians refused to pay him. Cicero says the edict was written for the benefit of Lucius Annius, that no praetor issued such an edict before or after, and that Verres left the clause out of his own edict in Sicily. Smith's Dictionary summarises that Verres seized the property under the Voconian law. Cicero published the case in his speeches against Verres. Pliny the Elder writes that Mark Antony later put Verres on the proscription list with Cicero because Verres refused to hand over his Corinthian bronzes.