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 Mural of a wedded couple from the villa of P. Fannius Synistor, Boscoreale (50-40 BCE) |
Clodia Metelli (born c. 97 BCE) was one of three sisters, all Clodias in the powerful and influential gens Claudia, identified by the addition of their husband's name (see names). She numbered among the elite "new" women of the late Republic --educated, wealthy, freely in the public eye -- who are portrayed in contemporary prose texts as negative exempla (e.g. Sempronia, Fulvia, Julia) for their rejection of the limiting role of the matrona. Scholars question whether historic women created the template of the independent beloved of elegiac love poetry (as Clodia is claimed to be Catullus' Lesbia) or were influenced by it (as Augustus' daughter Julia may have been by Ovid's poetry). In this passage from Cicero's defense speech Pro Caelio (April 3-4, 56 BCE), Clodia's ancestor reprimands her, a widow in her 30's, living alone without male supervision, and notorious for conduct that compromised the family name. That the portrait he paints of Clodia in this speech is a caricature, calculated to appeal to jurors' prejudices and win Caelius's acquittal, is evidenced by the very different Clodia he discusses in his letters (see Marilyn Skinner's 1983 article in the Bibliography). After 56 Clodia disappeared from public record. |
Section XIV.33: Cicero dramatically pretends not to interrogate Clodia himself, but instead calls up from the dead her famous ancestor, Appius Claudius Caecus, a stern moralist and statesman, to chastise her.
| Sed tamen ex ipsa quaeram prius utrum me secum severe et graviter et prisce agere malit an remisse et leniter et urbane. | |
| Si illo austero more ac modo, aliquis mihi ab inferis excitandus est ex barbatis illis non hac barbula, qua ista delectatur, sed illa horrida, quam in statuis antiquis atque imaginibus videmus, qui obiurget mulierem et pro me loquatur, ne mihi ista forte suscenseat. |   |
| Exsistat igitur ex hac ipsa familia aliquis ac potissimum Caecus ille; minimum enim dolorem capiet, qui istam non videbit. |
Section XIV.34: Cicero's Caecus compares Clodia's rumored conduct and her associates to the virtuous men and women of the Claudii who made their gens famous and to her most worthy deceased husband, Metellus.
| Qui profecto, si exstiterit, sic aget ac sic loquetur: "Mulier, quid tibi cum Caelio, quid cum homine adulescentulo, quid cum alieno? | |
| Cur aut tam familiaris huic fuisti, ut aurum commodares, aut tam inimica, ut venenum timeres? | |
| Non patrem tuum videras, non patruum, non avum, non proavum, non abavum, non atavum audieras consules fuisse; non denique modo te Q. Metelli matrimonium tenuisse sciebas, clarissimi ac fortissimi viri patriaeque amantissimi, qui simul ac pedem limine extulerat, omnes prope cives virtute, gloria, dignitate superabat? |  |
| Cum ex amplissimo genere in familiam clarissimam nupsisses, cur tibi Caelius tam coniunctus fuit? | |
| Cognatus, adfinis, viri tui familiaris? Nihil eorum. Quid igitur fuit nisi quaedam temeritas ac libido? | |
| Nonne te, si nostrae imagines viriles non commovebant, ne progenies quidem mea, Q. illa Claudia, aemulam domesticae laudis in gloria muliebri esse admonebat, non virgo illa Vestalis Claudia, quae patrem complexa triumphantem ab inimico tribuno plebei de curru detrahi passa non est? |    |
| Cur te fraterna vitia potius quam bona paterna et avita et usque a nobis cum in viris tum etiam in feminis repetita moverunt? | |
| Ideone ego pacem Pyrrhi diremi, ut tu amorum turpissimorum cotidie foedera ferires, ideo aquam adduxi, ut ea tu inceste uterere, ideo viam munivi, ut eam tu alienis viris comitata celebrares?" |    |
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