Clodia

Clodia from the Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

Clodia, (born Claudia Pulchra Prima or Maior or also Quadrantaria c. 95 BC or c. 94 BC^{[citation needed]} and often referred to in scholarship as Clodia Metelli ("Clodia the wife of Metellus"), was the third daughter of the patrician Appius Claudius Pulcher and Caecilia Metella Balearica.

She is not to be confused with her niece, Clodia Pulchra, who was briefly married to Octavian.

Like many other women of the Roman elite, Clodia was very well educated in Greek and Philosophy, with a special talent for writing poetry. Her life, immortalized in the writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero and also, it is generally believed, in the poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus, was characterized by perpetual scandal.

Life

Along with her brother Publius Clodius Pulcher, she changed her patrician name to Clodia, with a plebeian connotation.

Clodia was married to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, her first cousin. The marriage was not a happy one. Clodia engaged in several affairs with married men (possibly including the poet, Catullus - see below) and slaves, becoming at the same time a notorious gambler and drinker. Arguments with Metellus Celer were constant, often in public situations. When Metellus Celer died in strange circumstances in 59 BC, Clodia was suspected of poisoning her husband.

As a widow, Clodia became known as a merry one, taking several lovers. Clodia maintained several other lovers, including Marcus Caelius Rufus, Catullus' friend. This particular affair would cause an immense scandal. After the relationship with Caelius was over in 56 BC, Clodia publicly accused him of attempted poisoning. The accusation led to a murder charge and trial. Caelius' defence advocate was Cicero, who took a harsh approach against her, recorded in his speech Pro Caelio. Cicero had a personal interest in the case, as her brother Publius Clodius was Cicero's most bitter political enemy. Cicero accused Clodia of being a seducer and a drunkard in Rome and in Baiae and alluded to the persistent rumours of an incestuous relationship with Clodius. Cicero stated that he "would [attack Caelius' accusers] still more vigorously, if I had not a quarrel with that woman's [Clodia's] husband—brother, I meant to say; I am always making this mistake. At present I will proceed with moderation... for I have never thought it my duty to engage in quarrels with any woman, especially with one whom all men have always considered everybody's friend rather than any one's enemy."^[1] He declared her a disgrace to her family and nicknamed Clodia the Medea of the Palatine. (Cicero's marriage to Terentia suffered from Terentia's persistent suspicions that Cicero was conducting an illicit affair with Clodia.)

After the trial of Caelius, in which Caelius was found not guilty, little or possibly nothing is heard of Clodia, and the date of her death is unknown. In 44 BC, Cicero refers to a Clodia. Either she or a sister was still alive in 44 BC,^[2] but the lack of female personal names (praenomina) in Latin makes it difficult to specify whether this refers to her or a sister.

Identification with Lesbia

The poet Catullus wrote several love poems concerning a frequently unfaithful woman he called Lesbia, identified in the mid-second century AD by the writer Apuleius (Apologia 10) as a "Clodia." This practice of replacing actual names with ones of identical metrical value was not uncommon in Latin poetry of that era. In modern times, the resulting identification of Lesbia with Clodia Metelli, based largely on her portrayal by Cicero, is usually treated as accepted fact, despite occasional challenges. A recent article by the Roman historian Suzanne Dixon mounts a strong argument against not only the Lesbia/Clodia identification but also the notion that 'Lesbia' refers to a historical woman at all.^[3]

Clodia in popular culture

• Clodia makes several appearances in the Roma Sub Rosa series of historical mystery novels by the American author Steven Saylor.
• Clodia plays a significant role in several books of the SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts.
• Clodia also plays a significant role in the novel Lustrum (Conspirata in the US) by Robert Harris, the second book (of a proposed trilogy) about the life of Cicero.
• Clodia plays a role in the Ides of March, an epistolary novel by Thornton Wilder covering the events leading to the assassination of Julius Caesar. The author describes Clodia's relationship with Catullus and suggests that Clodia's scandalous lifestyle is inspired by anger at the perceived hypocrisy of her upbringing and by being abused as a child.
• Historical Consultant Jonathan Stamp [1] of the HBO/BBC series Rome identifies Clodia as the primary basis for the character of Atia of the Julii. Little detail is known of the historical Atia Balba Caesonia.
• Clodia makes an appearance in Visceral Games 2010 title Dante's Inferno (video game). She is portrayed as a Damned Soul in the third circle of Hell, Gluttony, and the player may choose to Absolve or Punish her soul. She is described as: "A soul filled with grime and smut. The notorious gambler, seducer and drunkard of Rome, left a repulsive trail of rot in her wake."

See also

• Women in Rome

References

1. ^ Cicero Pro Cael. 13,32 translation C.D. Yonge
2. ^ Cicero ad Att. 14.8.1
3. ^ Suzanne Dixon, Reading Roman Women (London: Duckworth, 2001), 133-156 (chapter 9, "The Allure of 'La Dolce Vita' in Ancient Rome").

• Christian Settipani. Continuité gentilice et continuité sénatoriale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale, 2000
• Manuel Dejante Pinto de Magalhães Arnao Metello and João Carlos Metello de Nápoles, "Metellos de Portugal, Brasil e Roma", Torres Novas, 1998

Further reading

• English translations of Catullus' "Lesbia" poems
• Cicero's defence speeches: Pro Caelio
• W.J. Tatum, The Patrician Tribune. Publius Clodius Pulcher, Chapel Hill 1999.
• L. Fezzi, Il tribuno Clodio, Roma-Bari 2008

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