Description
Book SynopsisClodia Metelli: The Tribune''s Sister is the first full-length biography of a Roman aristocrat whose colorful life, as described by her contemporaries, has inspired numerous modern works of popular fiction, art, and poetry. Clodia, widow of the consul Metellus Celer, was one of several prominent females who made a mark on history during the last decades of the Roman Republic. As the eldest sister of the populist demagogue P. Clodius Pulcher, she used her wealth and position to advance her brother''s political goals. For that she was brutally reviled by Clodius'' enemy, the orator M. Tullius Cicero, in a speech painting her as a scheming, debauched whore. Clodia may also have been the alluring mistress celebrated in the love poetry of Catullus, whom he calls Lesbia in homage to Sappho and depicts as beautiful, witty, but also false and corrupt. From Cicero''s letters, finally, we receive glimpses of a very different woman, a great lady at her leisure. This study examines Clodia in the c
Trade ReviewThis book is well-presented and well-written * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
This book ... is highly readable for its comments on the social and political history of the time, as well as an insight into the literary works of Catullus and Cicero. As a commentary on a key Republican family, it works as an in-depth case study of Late Republican life. * Kate Hammond, Journal of Roman Studies *
Table of ContentsLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS; ABBREVIATIONS; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; GENEALOGIES OF CLODIA METELLI AND HER SIBLINGS; MAPS; INTRODUCTION; AFTERWORD: A WOMAN IN A MAN'S WORLD; ENDNOTES; WORKS CITED
