The exact date of enactment of the Lex is a topic of much debate and no incontestable theory has been put forward. One view that has attracted some support is that it was enacted around 287/286 B.C immediately following the enactment of the Lex Hortensia, which gave plebiscites the ability to bind the whole people without ratification of the Senate for the first time. On this view then, the essential purpose of the Lex was to address Plebeian grievances against the Patrician elite during a politically tumultuous period by giving them a more equitable and comprehensive set of remedies. This derives mainly from Byzantine jurisprudence, in particular the work of the Byzantine jurist Theophilus, whose work puts the enactment of the Lex at around this period. He mentions this incidentally in his work and therefore the extent to which his account is accurate has been considered suspect.