Clodia Metella
Clodia Metelli (born Claudia Pulchra, gens Claudia)
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Roman aristocrat of the late Republic, sister of the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher and wife of the consul Metellus Celer. A cultured and independent woman, she is traditionally identified as the “Lesbia” celebrated by Catullus and was violently attacked by Cicero in the Pro Caelio.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born around 95 BC into the patrician gens Claudia, daughter of Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul in 79 BC).
- Wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, consul in 60 BC and dead in 59 BC; rumor, spread by Cicero, would accuse her of having poisoned him.
- Sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher, the turbulent tribune of the plebs assassinated in 52 BC.
- In 56 BC, the central target of Cicero's speech, the Pro Caelio, which defended her former lover Marcus Caelius Rufus by portraying her as a dissolute woman.
- Identified since antiquity (on the testimony of Apuleius) as the “Lesbia” of Catullus's love poems.
Works & Achievements
Identified as the Lesbia celebrated by Catullus in verse, she inspired one of the most famous cycles of love poetry in Latin literature.
Cicero's portrait of her made her one of the most vivid — and most controversial — female figures in all of Roman prose.
A cultured woman, she gathered poets and politicians in her homes, playing the role of a patron of the arts that was unusual for a Roman woman.
A wealthy widow, she personally managed her residence on the Palatine, her gardens by the Tiber, and her villa at Baiae, exercising an independence rare for her time.
For historians, she embodies the “new woman” of the late Republic, free in her choices and powerful through her wealth and her network.
Anecdotes
The poet Catullus never names Clodia directly: he sings of her under the nickname "Lesbia
a nod to the great Greek poetess Sappho of the island of Lesbos. Centuries later, the writer Apuleius revealed that this mysterious Lesbia was indeed Clodia. The pseudonym also had the same rhythm as her real name, which made it possible to fit it into his verses.
In 56 BC, Caelius, a former lover of Clodia, was accused of having tried to poison her. His defender, Cicero, cleverly turned the situation around: instead of merely defending the accused, he put Clodia herself "on trial
ridiculing her before the judges by nicknaming her the "Medea of the Palatine." The courtroom laughed, and Caelius was acquitted.
In one of his pleadings, Cicero imagines summoning back from the dead an illustrious ancestor of Clodia, the blind censor Appius Claudius Caecus, so that he might reprimand his descendant for her conduct. This spectacular device, called prosopopoeia, made a strong impression on the Roman audience.
Catullus wrote two of the most famous animal poems of antiquity: one in which he watches Lesbia play with her little tame sparrow (passer), the other in which he mourns the bird's death. These tender, light-hearted verses inspired poets for two thousand years.
When her husband, the consul Metellus Celer, died suddenly in 59 BC, rumors — later spread by her enemies — accused her of having poisoned him. No proof exists, but the episode shows how a wealthy, cultured, and independent woman could easily become the target of gossip in the Rome of that era.
Primary Sources
Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love, and as for all the murmurs of stern old men, let us reckon them worth but a single penny.
I hate and I love. Why do I do this, perhaps you ask. I do not know, but I feel it happening, and it is torture.
Cicero compares Clodia to a “Medea of the Palatine” and conjures up the shade of her ancestor Appius Claudius to reproach her for her scandalous conduct and her debaucheries at Baiae.
In his private correspondence, Cicero refers to Clodia by the mocking Greek nickname “Boôpis” (ox-eyed), a Homeric epithet of the goddess Juno, insinuating that she was too close to her brother.
Apuleius explains that poets concealed the identity of their loved ones under false names: “Catullus, in place of Clodia, says Lesbia.”
Key Places
Aristocratic hill where Clodia owned her residence; Cicero ironically nicknamed her the “Medea of the Palatine.”
Vast pleasure gardens along the banks of the Tiber where she loved to entertain and stroll, places that Cicero portrayed as the scene of scandals.
A fashionable seaside resort renowned for its pleasures, where Clodia stayed; Cicero used it as an argument in his attacks on her morality.
The political and judicial heart of Rome, where the trial of Caelius was held in 56 BC, during which Cicero made Clodia his target.
A town south of Rome near which her brother Clodius was killed in 52 BC, an event that marked the end of her family's power.