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Clodia
(b. c. 95 bc)
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Second of the three sisters of Clodius Pulcher, b. c.95 bc, had married her first cousin Caecilius Metellus Celer by 62. Her bitter enemy Cicero (but gossip said she had once offered him marriage) paints a vivid picture of her in his Letters from 60 bc onwards, and above all in his speech on behalf of Caelius Rufus. Her affair with Catullus—the identification with Lesbia is widely admitted—began before the death of Metellus in 59, which Clodia was said to have caused by poison: by the end of that year Caelius was her lover. After the Caelius case her political importance ceases.
Subjects: Classical studies
