Clodia

Clodia (also - to distinguish it from her sisters - Clodia Metelli , originally Claudia ; * around 90 BC; † after 44 BC) was one of the most controversial women of the late Roman Republic . She was married to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer . It was Marcus Tullius Cicero's vilification for a dissolute lifestyle in his Pro Caelio speech . Among other things, he said her incest with her brother Publius Clodius Pulcher . From this it was concluded in ancient times that she was the lover of the poet Catullus , called Lesbia , to whom he dedicated numerous poems .

Surname

The name Clodia is the feminine form of the Roman name Clodius , the form of the name Claudius that Publius Clodius Pulcher took when he himself was 59 BC. Was declared a plebeian . His three sisters followed this name change. Another bearer of the name was his daughter Clodia from his marriage to Fulvia , the second wife of Mark Antony.

Life

Family of origin

Clodia came from the esteemed noble family of the Claudians , who produced many famous figures in Roman history. Her father Appius Claudius Pulcher was born in 79 BC. Chr. Consul . Her mother was probably Caecilia Metella , the sister of the consul from 98 BC. BC, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos .

Clodia had (at least) five siblings, three brothers and two sisters. Nothing is known about her childhood or upbringing. Her father left the family after his death in 76 BC. Chr. Supposedly impoverished back, which is why the youngest of the sisters to one of Marcus Terentius Varro traditional legend without dowry with Lucullus be married had. Of her three brothers, the eldest, Appius Claudius Pulcher , was elected consul in 54, while the second brother, Gaius, was elected in 51 BC. BC did not get to the consulate due to a bribery scandal. The political career of the third, Publius Clodius Pulcher , who was a few years younger than her, pursued and supported Clodia proportionately, with her political influence working more behind the scenes.

Of her sisters, whose age sequence cannot be reconstructed with certainty, one was with Quintus Marcius Rex , the consul of 68 BC. Chr., Married. The other, named Tertia or Clodia Luculli after her husband , was the wife of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who lived in 74 BC. Was consul and was related to the Metelli through his mother . He led the Roman army in the Third Mithridatic War (74-64 BC) and settled in 66 BC after about ten years of marriage. Divorce from Clodia after their brother Publius had caused a mutiny of his army against him, which led to his recall. The alleged incest with her brother Publius as an alleged reason for divorce is first mentioned in Cicero's speech pro Milone 52 BC. Chr. Thematized.

Marriage to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer

As is not uncommon in Roman patrician families , Clodia was given to her cousin Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer as a wife. This was 66 BC. Chr. Legate of Pompey in the war against Mithridates of Pontus been. While Cicero's consulate in 63 BC He was praetor and, as governor of the province of Gallia cisalpina, took part in the suppression of the Catiline conspiracy by blocking the way to Gallia transalpina for Catiline's troops . Presumably the wedding took place that year.

61 BC Celer fell out with Pompey when he divorced his half-sister Mucia Tertia . As an optimate , Clodia's husband had enough reputation to win his former brother-in-law in the race for the consulate in 60 BC. To be able to outdo. During his tenure, he and Cicero opposed his brother-in-law Publius Clodius Pulcher, who despite his patrician origins aspired to the office of tribune of the people . Celer's sudden death in early 59 BC BC provoked rumors that Clodia was not entirely innocent of this, because the marriage was not very harmonious and Clodia was constantly at war with him. Whether the marriage was really as bad as Cicero reported from the year of Celer's consulate is as unknown as whether there was a significant age difference or under what law the marriage was concluded. The fact that she did not accompany him on his military missions and governorships is not a sign of a bad marriage, but was in line with the custom of the time. Only two years earlier, Cicero himself described in a letter to Celer how Clodia and Mucia mediated between him and her brother-in-law Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos .

From her marriage to Metellus Celer, Clodia had a daughter Metella, possibly Caecilia Metella , who was the lover of Cicero's son-in-law Dolabella .

Between Clodius and Cicero

After Celer's death, Clodia supported the political career of her brother Publius, which she also discussed with Cicero's friend Titus Pomponius Atticus , who passed this news on to Cicero. This suggests that her relationship with Cicero was at least 59 BC. BC was not as bad as its later depiction in pro Caelio suggests. However, Cicero already dubbed her in letters from this time with the Greek attribute βοῶπις ( boópis "cow-eyed") of Hera , the sister-wife of Zeus , which refers to his later charge of incest. On December 10, 59 BC In BC Clodius was elected tribune of the people. In this capacity he implemented a number of popular laws. At his instigation, Cicero was sent into exile and his property confiscated, from which he was only in 57 BC. Returned BC. Clodius acquired his property on the Palatine Hill.

Unlike usual, Clodia had not remarried, but turned to Marcus Caelius Rufus , a pupil and friend of Cicero - at least if you can believe Cicero. He came from a knighthood and his father owned large estates in Africa. However Caelius was involved in the Catilinarian conspiracy, he managed to turn around in time. Thus, thanks to the support of Pompey, he had a brilliant career ahead of him. He was 12 years younger than Clodia and was considered handsome. After the relationship ended, Clodia (or her brother Publius) persisted in 56 BC. A trial against Caelius. The official prosecutor was Lucius Sempronius Atratinus , who was only 17 years old , who accused Caelius of an attempt to kill Clodia, among other crimes, including a murder committed with gold borrowed from Clodia. Caelius' defense took over Cicero. His speech Pro Caelio (see below) is less a defense of his client than a systematic denigration of Clodia, even if her name is not mentioned directly. As a whore, she should be portrayed as an unbelievable witness in the trial. Even relatives like Appius Claudius Caecus , the builder of the Via Appia , allowed Cicero to have their say in his plea to direct abuse against Clodia from his mouth and to point out that her relationship with Caelius is ruthlessly damaging the family's reputation. Wilfried Stroh even believes it is quite possible that Cicero himself invented the affair between Clodia and Caelius. In addition, Cicero said she had a number of love affairs and even incest with her brothers. This defamation of the sister of his enemy, which was also used in other speeches also directed against Publius Clodius in 57/56 BC. When it was raised with similar accusations, Clodius was primarily discredited as being morally depraved, weak and under the thumb of a woman. Thanks to the brilliant defense by Cicero and Marcus Licinius Crassus , Caelius was acquitted without the accused murder of the philosopher Dion actually being discussed in the trial. Clodia, on the other hand, was exposed to the scorn of the mob and the contempt of posterity.

Nothing certain is known about their later life. She also no longer appeared in Clodius' environment. In 52 BC The armed gangs of Clodia's brother and Titus Annius Milo met on the Via Appia and had Clodius killed in battle. Again the defense lawyer was called Cicero, again one of the sisters, this time Clodia Luculli, was accused of incest with the brother, but this time Cicero was defeated and the sentence was exile for Milo.

Despite the accusations in Pro Caelio , Clodia seems to have maintained a friendly relationship with Cicero; in any case, Cicero chose the site for the tomb of his 45 BC. Daughter Tullia, who died in BC, was considered to be Clodias Gardens at short notice. Clodia appears to be independent of business, which was unusual for a Roman woman, unless she was no longer subject to patria potestas as a widow from a Manu marriage .

Clodia's date of death is unknown. The last time Cicero mentioned them to Atticus a month after Caesar's murder in 44 BC. In the same breath as Cleopatra :

"Reginae fuga mihi non molesta est. [Sed] Clodia quid egerit, scribas ad me velim. "

"I'm not interested in the Queen's escape, but what Clodia has done, write to me soon."

One can only speculate whether Clodia, as the older univira, was possibly a companion of the Egyptian queen.

Clodia in the sources

Clodia as Lesbia in Catullus love poems

It would fit well into the picture of the incestuous sister drawn by Cicero to equate Clodia with the beloved Lesbia in Catullus' poems, as a remark by Apuleius seems to suggest, who reveals a total of four pseudonyms for lovers in Roman love poetry. According to modern reconstructions, it is said to be 61/60 BC. Have had a relationship with him, which her husband should not have escaped. It is astonishing, however, that Metellus, who can rightly be called a Roman of the old style, was not worried about his reputation and initiated steps towards separation should he have known of his wife's infidelity. In any case, the identification Lesbia- Clodia is not mandatory. In addition, Catullus' biography itself cannot be reconstructed clearly, as the information given by Hieronymus and Suetonius contradict those in his poems. Peter Wiseman dates Catullus poems to 54 BC. BC, according to which it is forbidden to equate the married lover Lesbia with the widowed Clodia.

Catullus came to Rome to intensify his studies , where he might have met Clodia. In his poems, Catullus lamented that as a married woman , Lesbia did not take the relationship as seriously as he did. In his poems, the intensity of love for several years older and the pain of separation are reflected. In the later songs this pain turns into anger and it accuses her of infidelity, fornication and possibly even incest, when reference is made to the beautiful (pulcer) Lesbius , whom Lesbia is said to love more than the unfortunate Catullus, and increases to the point of Hate. Of course, it must not be forgotten that the verses do not give an undistorted image of reality because they are designed according to poetic norms and the lyrical self is not necessarily identical with the historical Catullus.

Clodia in Cicero's speech Pro Caelio

With his speech Pro Caelio , Cicero defended Marcus Caelius Rufus , who 56 BC BC was charged with an assassination attempt on Clodia among other crimes. In this speech he imputed her incest with her brother Clodius and poisoning of her 59 BC. Deceased spouse. She downright stalked the young, good-looking neighbor Caelius and, after the two-year relationship ended, initiated a revenge trial against her former lover because she could not bear to be abandoned by him, while the official plaintiff Lucius Sempronius was just a straw man be. At the same time he said she had a huge number of liaisons and portrayed her closeness to her brother as a sexual relationship. As an allusion to her beauty and above all her big eyes, he used the code name βοῶπις ("cow-eyed") for Clodia, which is also an attribute of Heras , the wife and sister Zeus ', was used, so that the suspicion of incest shimmered through again. Cicero's insults reached their climax when he dubbed Clodia the "four-penny Clytemnestra" with the help of her lover Aigisthus , alluding to the Mycenaean Queen Clytemnestra , who killed her husband Agamemnon after his return from the Trojan War in revenge for the sacrifice of her daughter Iphigenia .). With these slanders against Clodia, Cicero took revenge on her brother, who took advantage of his office as tribune of the people in 59 BC. In exile and arranged for the cheap sale of his possessions.

Sister Clodia Luculli later made the same accusation of incest in his speech for Titus Annius Milo . And in this case, too, the accusation hardly seemed credible. In general, defamation in election campaigns or in court speeches was considered an effective means because it was not forbidden and, moreover, difficult to verify, which is why reservations are appropriate when interpreting them. Cicero was also accused of incest with his daughter Tullia, whom he sincerely loved, which his contemporaries can hardly have taken seriously.

Doubts as to the veracity of the allegations are reasonable considering that the defense tactics were based on drawing attention to Clodia as a bad association for Caelius so that all of her crimes could be blamed.

Guy Fau gives a possible explanation with her reference to frescoes of the Dionysus cult that were excavated in Clodia's villa. An initiation of Clodia into a mystery cult would offer an explanation for the reproach of being too friendly with slaves and being too revealing towards men, which Cicero criticized. Because from the widespread thought there of the brotherhood of all people due to the immortality of the soul, it results that slaves can also rise within the religious hierarchy and are treated better in everyday life. With the consent of her family, Clodia released slaves, which led Cicero to speculate that this was only done out of self-interest and calculation in order to find witnesses for the trial. The mystery cults could also have initiated increasing equality with men - apart from the mainly social backgrounds of such a development. The Bacchanalia, exuberant celebrations in honor of Dionysus, were accompanied by dances and excessive orgies, which is why they were temporarily banned by the Senate. In this context, women were also able to experience a certain sexual liberation, which is definitely characteristic of Sempronias and Lesbias / Clodias outbursts from conventional forms of life.

Clodia at Plutarch

The writer Plutarch mentions Clodia in his Cicero biography. Accordingly, Cicero's wife Terentia feared that Clodia wanted to relax her husband. Plutarch attributes Clodius' bad reputation mainly to his sisters. The suspicion of incest was beyond doubt.

literature

• Richard A. Bauman: Women and Politics in Ancient Rome. Routledge, London et al. 2003, ISBN 0-415-05777-9 .
• Guy Fau: L'émancipation féminine à Rome. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1978.
• Luca Fezzi: Il tribuno Clodio. Laterza, Roma / Bari 2008, ISBN 978-88-420-8715-1 .
• Claudia Anna Gräßner: Clodia. In: Peter von Möllendorff , Annette Simonis, Linda Simonis (ed.): Historical figures of antiquity. Reception in literature, art and music (= Der Neue Pauly . Supplements. Volume 8). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2013, ISBN 978-3-476-02468-8 , Sp. 311-318.
• Ann C. Harders: Suavissima Soror. Investigations into brother-sister relationships in the Roman Republic. CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57777-2 .
• Julia Dyson Hejduk: Clodia. A sourcebook. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 2008, ISBN 978-0-8061-3907-4 .
• Marilyn B. Skinner: Clodia Metelli. The Tribune's Sister. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-537501-5 .
• WJ Tatum: The Patrician Tribune. Publius Clodius Pulcher. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8078-2480-1 .

Remarks

1. ↑ Cicero , De divinatione 1.4; Pro Sexto Roscio Amerino 147; Friedrich Münzer : Caecilius 135). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, col. 1235. See also Harders: Suavissima Soror. Investigations into brother-sister relationships in the Roman Republic. Pp. 215-218, where various theories of DR Shackleton Bailey and TW Hillard about the relationship between the Claudians and the Metelli are presented. According to Shackleton Bailey, Clodia Metelli is not the daughter of Caecilia Metella, but an unknown first wife of her father.
2. ↑ Varro, Res rusticae 3,16,1f .; but Harders: Suavissima Soror. P. 219f.
3. ↑ Plutarch , Cicero 27.5.
4. ↑ Plutarch, Lucullus 34: 1-4.
5. ↑ Harders: Suavissima Soror. Investigations into brother-sister relationships in the Roman Republic. P. 235.
6. ↑ The relationship was so close that Cicero referred to him several times in Pro Caelio as the frater (brother) of Clodia's brothers, which has led to various speculations about Clodia's ancestry (Skinner: Clodia Metelli, p. 55f.)
7. ↑ Harders: Suavissima Soror. Investigations into brother-sister relationships in the Roman Republic. P. 220.
8. ↑ Cicero, ad Atticum 2,1,5: ea cum viro bellum gerit.
9. ↑ Cicero, ad familiares 5.2 .
10. ^ Skinner: Clodia Metelli. The Tribune's Sister. Pp. 6-8; 93ff.
11. ↑ Harders: Suavissima Soror. Investigations into brother-sister relationships in the Roman Republic. P. 233.
12. ↑ e.g. Cicero, Ad Atticum 2.14.
13. ^ Cicero, Pro Caelio 36.
14. ^ According to Bauman: Women and Politics in Ancient Rome. P. 72 for reasons of personal revenge.
15. ↑ Ann C. Harders: Suavissima Soror. Investigations into brother-sister relationships in the Roman Republic. P. 240.
16. ^ Wilfried Stroh: Taxis and tactics. 1975, p. 243ff.
17. ↑ E.g. De domo sua 93.
18. ↑ Ann C. Harders: Suavissima Soror. Investigations into brother-sister relationships in the Roman Republic. Pp. 242-244.
19. ↑ Cicero, Ad Quintum fratrem 2,3,2.
20. ↑ Cicero, Ad Atticum 13,29,2.
21. ↑ Cicero, Ad Atticum 14.8.1 .
22. ↑ Apuleius, De magia 10.
23. ^ Niklas Holzberg : Catullus. CH Beck, Munich 2002, p. 16f.
24. ^ Niklas Holzberg: Catullus. CH Beck, Munich 2002, p. 18f.
25. ↑ Peter Wiseman: Catullan Question. Leicester 1969, p. 57.
26. ↑ e.g. Catullus 58 .
27. ^ Catullus 79 .
28. ^ Niklas Holzberg: Catullus. CH Beck, Munich 2002, p. 13.
29. ^ Cicero, Pro Caelio 36.
30. ↑ The same expression appears in several letters to Atticus (e.g. 2,5,1).
31. ^ Cicero, Pro Caelio 57.
32. ↑ Ann C. Harders: Suavissima Soror. Investigations into brother-sister relationships in the Roman Republic. P. 244.
33. ^ Guy Fau: L'émancipation féminine à Rome.
34. ↑ Plutarch, Cicero 29: 1-5.