Clodia and Terentia

1. CLODIA (born about 95 BC)
1. After Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi (who died sometime after 100 BC),
no individual woman stands out in her own right for quite some time - not, in
fact, until CLODIA in the 60s AND 50s BC.
2. We must ask immediately of CLODIA how ‘scandalous’ she really was and
whether she has perhaps been maligned by a hostile tradition because she was
such a “unorthodox” woman.
THE BACKGROUND TO HER ALLEGED ‘NOTORIETY’
1. CICERO, perhaps the most prominent political figure in the late 60s BC (and
beyond) fought tirelessly for the cause of “the Republic”, especially when he
saw it threatened by POMPEY, CRASSUS, and JULIUS CAESAR when the
three combined their efforts and resources to control the state in their private
pact we call “the FIRST TRIUMVIRATE”.

2. 2. He must have been appalled when the three, in order to protect the legislation
they had succeeded in getting passed in 59 BC, ‘arranged’ for a sympathetic
“tribune of the Plebs” to be elected for 58 BC in the person of PUBLIUS
CLODIUS PULCHER who would cow into submission all those who might
dare to try to undo the work of ‘the Triumvirs’.
3. CICERO and PUBLIUS CLODIUS had already locked horns three years
earlier in 62 BC over the infamous “Bona Dea Affair” (‘the Affair of the
Good Goddess’):
a) CLODIUS, dressed in female attire, had infiltrated the sacred rites of the
‘Good Goddess’ held in the official residence of the Pontifex Maximus (at
that time Julius Caesar) and open to women only.
b) He had been charged with sacrilege with CICERO as prosecutor at the time
of his trial.

3. TWO DEPICTIONS OF THE “BONA DEA”
(“THE GOOD GODDESS”)

4. c) Despite his clear guilt and despite CICERO disproving his alibi, CLODIUS
had been acquitted because the jury had been bribed.
d) From that moment onwards CLODIUS had become CICERO’s implacable
enemy and had, in fact, once in office as a “tribune of the Plebs” in 58 BC,
passed legislation which would force CICERO to go into exile for a time.
4. CLODIA was Publius CLODIUS Pulcher’s sister and when CICERO had the
opportunity to make her a ‘scapegoat’ during the trial of Caelius Rufus in the
March of 56 BC he did not hold back his punches (as we will see).
5. But who was CLODIA (other than the sister of Publius CLODIUS Pulcher)?
6. Most definitely what in a later age would be called a ‘socialite’.

5. CLODIA’S LIFE AND ‘PUBLIC’ ROLE
1. a) CLODIA was the eldest or middle daughter of one of the consuls 79 BC
from the very distinguished “patrician” family of the Claudii Pulchri.
b) She appears to have changed her name to CLODIA [from ‘Claudia’] at the
same time as her brother changed his from CLAUDIUS Pulcher to
CLODIUS Pulcher when he was adopted into a “plebeian” family as a result
of some jiggery-pokery so that he could become a “tribune of the Plebs”.
c) She is reported as being highly educated in Greek and philosophy and, with
little disagreement, is usually identified as the “Lesbia” who looms so large
as the mistress referred to by the poet Catullus (ca 84 – 54 BC) in his poetry.
d) If the identification is correct, then she is depicted by Catullus as fickle,
flirtatious and flighty as a mistress.

6. 2. Poem 11 of Catullus’ collection, written after he has fallen out with her, expresses
well his feelings about the sort of person he thought she was:
“Let her live and be happy with her adulterers,
hold all three-hundred in her embrace,
truly without love herself, wearing them all down
again and again: let her not look for
my love as before,
she whose crime destroyed it, like the last
flower of the field, touched once
by the passing plough.”

7. A MODERN DEPICTION OF CATULLUS’
LESBIA (ALMOST CERTAINLY CLODIA)
WITH THE FAMOUS SPARROW (mentioned
in Catullus’ poems)

8. 3. Cicero’s depiction of CLODIA is, in so many ways, similar in the Pro Caelio
[“In Defence of Caelius”] (as we will see).
4. a) CLODIA was the wife of the “stuffed-shirt” Quintus Caecilius Metellus
Celer (her first cousin), consul in 60 BC, who was about five years her senior
only.
b) The marriage was allegedly not a happy one and the couple are said to have
argued frequently and openly in public.
c) Her husband died suddenly in 59 BC when he was at the most in his early
forties and rumour had it that Clodia had poisoned him – but how far this
was, again, just an accusation brought by her personal enemies isn’t clear;
it certainly did not lead to any sort of trial.
d) Again allegedly, she had been unfaithful to her husband during the
marriage and did not hesitate to indulge in love-affairs once she was
widowed too - none of this the proper behaviour for an upper-class Roman
matrona.

9. e) At dates that cannot be clearly established she is believed [as already noted] to
have become the mistress of the poet Catullus (born about 84 BC and so about ten
years Clodia’s junior).
5. a) After leaving Catullus, she began an affair (which seems not to have been in
any sense a secret) with Marcus Caelius Rufus who was born in 82 BC and,
so again, at least ten years Clodia’s junior.
b) He was an Italian who belonged to the “Equestrian Order” (not the
senatorial), a lawyer and a correspondent of Cicero’s and clearly known in
Roman society.
c) Clodia’s affair with him ended acrimoniously after a relatively short time
and in March 56 BC he found himself charged with several counts of “public
violence” (under a law de vi publica).

10. 6. The charges against Caelius Rufus brought by a series of prosecutors were:
i) causing civil disturbances in Naples,
ii) committing an assault in the town of Puteoli,
iii) damaging property,
iv) accepting gold to murder Dio, the head of the delegation sent to Rome by
citizens of Alexandria (in Egypt) to persuade the Roman Senate not to support
the deposed King Ptolemy XII of Egypt in his attempts to regain his throne,
v) the actual murder of Dio, and
vi) attempting to poison CLODIA - all of which he was likely guilty of doing.
7. It was in this case that CICERO acted as a defence-counsel, later publishing
his lengthy speech as his Pro Caelio [“In Defence of Caelius”].

11. CICERO’s PRO CAELIO
1. The thrust of Cicero’s defence was that the (private) prosecutors were being
manipulated by a vengeful CLODIA upset that her affair with Caelius had
ended - and Cicero was at pains to depict her as ‘a woman scorned’.
2. a) It seems that the accusers of Caelius had reproached him for his
infidelities, his parties, his revelling, his enjoyment of ‘la dolce vita’.
b) We don’t have the speeches of the accusers.
3. a) Cicero’s strategy was to turn the tables and shame CLODIA in public in
court by arguing that the charges against his client were precisely the sorts
of things CLODIA had been indulging in and that she was the one who
had taught Caelius these ‘immoralities’!

12. b) His aim was to divert the attention of the jury away from Caelius’ questionable
political activities (which seem to have included considerable thuggery) and to
play on the jurors’ prejudices by suggesting that someone who was no more than
a loose-living woman had financed her lover’s indulgences.
c) It is most unlikely that CLODIA was a chaste, ‘stay-at-home’ widow, but the
charges against her are equally unlikely to be well grounded.
4. Some examples of Cicero’s ‘method’ from the trial may best illustrate how he
designed his attack on CLODIA [in a system which had no law of slander] in order to
direct the jurors’ attention away from his client Caelius.
a) Cicero at one point, for example, asks the jurors to imagine what Clodia’s
ancestor, the blind Appius Claudius Caecus, censor back in 312 BC, would
say if he could come into the court. He would say (Cicero claims):

13. “What have you to do with a very young man like Caelius?
Why have you been so intimate with him as to lend him gold?
Did you not remember that your father, your uncle, your grand-father,
your great-grandfather, your great-great-grand-father were all consuls?
When you had become a wife, and, coming from a most illustrious family
yourself, had married into a most renowned family too, why was Caelius so
close to you? Was he a relation? Was he a friend of your husband?
Nothing of the sort!

14. What then was the reason, other than some folly or lust on your part?
Even if the images of us, the men of your family, had no influence over
you, did not even my own daughter, that celebrated Quinta Claudia,
remind you to emulate the praise belonging to our house from the glory of
its women?
Why have the vices of your brother [Publius Clodius Pulcher] carried more
weight with you than the virtues of your father, of your grandfather, and
others in regular descent ever since my own time - virtues exemplified not
only in the men, but also in the women?”
In a society where family honour was so highly valued, this appeal to ancestry
would have had a greater effect than might, perhaps, be the case today.

15. b) Cicero then addresses CLODIA himself:
“If, woman, you want us to approve of what you are doing, and what you
are saying, and what you are charging us with, and what you are
intending, and what you are seeking to achieve by this prosecution, you
must give a satisfactory account of your great familiarity, your intimate
connection, your extraordinary relationship with Caelius.
The accusers of Caelius refer, in this court, to lusts and loves on his part
and to adulteries, and goings-on on the sea-shore, and at banquets, and
at revels, and at water parties; and suggest that none of these things is
mentioned without your consent.

16. In fact, you saw a young man become your neighbour; his fair
complexion, his height, his face, his eyes made an impression on you.
You wanted to see him more often. Sometimes you were seen in the same
gardens with him.
But, despite being a woman of high rank, you have been unable with all
your riches to hold on to him, the son of a thrifty and parsimonious
father: he has kicked out, he has rejected you, he does not think your
presents worth what you require of him.
Go try someone else. You have gardens on the Tiber, and you carefully
made them at the very spot where all the young men of the city come to
bathe.
From that spot you may every day pick out people to suit you.
Why do you annoy this one man, Caelius, who in fact scorns you?”

17. 5. a) The speech is a long one.
b) Cicero’s invective against CLODIA (aimed at vilifying her and diverting
attention away from Caelius) worked!
c) Caelius was acquitted of all charges.
d) No more is heard of CLODIA, but her reputation has been sullied for
all time by the publication and survival of that forensic speech.
Contemporary with CLODIA in the 60s and 50s BC (and still leaving a footprint in
the 40s too) - but totally different from CLODIA - were “the womenfolk of
CICERO” himself (TERENTIA, PUBLILIA, and TULLIA).
To them we should turn next.

18. TERENTIA, PUBLILIA, and TULLIA – THE WIVES AND DAUGHTER
OF CICERO
TERENTIA, as just mentioned, was in every way a complete contrast to CLODIA.
1. She and CICERO married sine manu (without her coming under Cicero’s
‘guardianship’) in 80 or 79 BC when she was about 18 and he was 27 and judged
likely to have a good political career ahead of him.
2. a) When her father died she became sui iuris (legally independent) and a very
wealthy woman.
b) Cicero’s freedman Philotimus became her ‘guardian’ and helped her manage
her substantial property holdings.
3. She had brought to the marriage with Cicero a significant dowry.

19. 4. Even though it was likely a marriage of convenience, the first letters we have
from the late autumn 58 BC written to her by Cicero from his forced exile (after
over 20 years of marriage) reveal considerable affection on his part.
5. And it is from the huge bulk of Cicero’s surviving correspondence that we get
our insights into his relationship with his wife (albeit not until after twenty years
of life together) and with his friends.

20. MARCUS TULLIUS
CICERO
LATER IN LIFE

21. 6. Only the reader can judge the degree of affection in the first letters we have.
On 5th October 58 BC CICERO wrote from exile to TERENTIA [Letters to friends
14. 2]:
“ ……. Don’t suppose that I write longer letters to anyone else. …. To you and my dear
‘little’Tullia I cannot write without many tears. For I see you reduced to great misery - the
very people whom I truly wanted to enjoy always complete happiness, …… a happiness
which I would have secured for you if I had not been such a coward. …. ”;
On 28th November, he wrote [Letters to friends 14.1]:
“Cicero sends greetings to his Terentia, his ‘little’Tullia [now 20] and young Cicero [aged 7].
I know from others’ letters and their conversations that you are demonstrating an
incredible strength and courage and that you are showing no signs of tiredness in mind
or body from all your labours. And to think that such troubles should have fallen on a
woman of your virtue, fidelity, uprightness and kindness because of me! …….. If they came
about, as you have said, because of ‘fate’, I would have been able to bear them more easily,
but they are to be laid soundly at my door.”; and

22. On 29th November, after he had received three letters, which, he says, he drenched
in tears because of his family’s situation, he wrote to his wife and children :
“ ……. My dear Terentia, I am totally weakened by sorrow, but it is not my own sorrows
that torture me more than yours – and yours, my children. …..” [Letters to friends 14.3]
TERENTIA
1. What do we know about TERENTIA - especially about her role in Cicero’s
distinguished career?
2. i) She was independently wealthy (as already noted) and owned
a) agricultural land;
b) a large woodland property;
c) a village (which was to be sold during Cicero’s exile in 58/57 BC to
generate funds); and
ii) she rented some state-owned land too in her own name, because at some
point there was an issue over paying the rent on it.

23. 3. a) The dowry which accompanied her when she married Cicero was worth some
400,000 sesterces – the amount needed at that time for senatorial status.
b) As well as landed property, the dowry included two tenement blocks in Rome,
both of which brought in substantial rent.
4. Although we can’t be sure, TERENTIA probably contributed significantly to
Cicero’s political career financially from her own private funds:
a) She came from a wealthy ‘senatorial’ family (which included influential
ancestors) and [as noted before] was legally independent (sui iuris) when her father
died; whereas …..
b) Cicero himself came from a municipal family of ‘equestrian’ (not ‘senatorial’)
status (albeit a fairly wealthy one) and was, at the time of his marriage, still
under the authority of his pater familias – which meant that the dowry went to
Cicero’s father for safe-keeping.

24. 5. When Cicero was exiled in 58 BC TERENTIA was left to deal with his affairs
which seem to have ben in chaos. She had
a) to manage the houses and villas that he owned;
b) to handle his revenues on his behalf;
c) to oversee his slaves;
d) to raise (alone) their son, Marcus, who was 7 at the time his father was
driven from Rome;
e) to see to the safety, too, of their daughter, Tullia, when things turned ugly.
6. a) Although Terentia did not, herself, let Cicero know all the details at the
time, she was forced to take refuge with the Vestal Virgins (where she probably
had a half-sister) when Publius Clodius Pulcher (the brother of Clodia) [who
was the one who had brought about Cicero’s exile] sent his thugs to burn
down Cicero’s town house on the Palatine Hill and his villas elsewhere in
Italy.

25. b) She also seems to have been dragged on one occasion from her place of
refuge and manhandled and forced to attend some sort of financial court.
7. Despite everything, Terentia and Tullia together worked tirelessly in Rome, to
the extent they could as women, for Cicero’s recall from exile by going around in
mourning attire and with unkempt hair and lobbying all his friends and contacts.
8. When Cicero (after his recall from exile in 57 BC) had to leave Rome again in 51 BC to be
governor (for a year) of the province of “Cilicia” (in southern Asia Minor), Terentia was
again left in charge of Cicero’s affairs in Rome and Italy.
9. And it fell to her lot, too, in her husband’s absence, to find a husband for their
daughter TULLIA, who had just been divorced from her second husband.
10. a) Cicero could not arrange a marriage for her from so far away and must have
given his authority as paterfamilias (“head of the family”) for Terentia to do
what she could to find someone suitable for their daughter, including all the
bargaining which must have gone on.

26. b) Terentia and Tullia rejected the ‘suitable’ men Cicero himself suggested and
opted for Publius Cornelius DOLABELLA who became Tullia’s third husband
in the summer of 50 BC - a man TULLIA seems to have been besotted with.
c) i) Dolabella had shining ‘aristocratic’ credentials but was at heart “an engaging
rogue” (to use Mary Beard’s comment).
ii) TERENTIA likely chose him because of his closeness to Julius Caesar
(whose growing power could not be ignored) as a sort of “insurance policy”.
d) But Dolabella was a disaster as a husband and the marriage (which lasted only
four years) was a very unhappy one, the couple living apart after the death of
their first son in his first year in 49 BC.
11. Cicero doesn’t ever criticize Terentia in his correspondence for her choice of
Dolabella but does appear to express the wish to his friend Atticus that things
had been different. (Letters to Atticus Book 11.25)

27. A CHANGE IN TONE
1. In the letters of the autumn of 58 BC (even if the language can be a little formal
at times), the genuine affection he feels for his family seems to come through -
especially his affection for TERENTIA.
2. Ten years later the tone is different and Cicero’s communications with his wife
become very short and his comments very curt for some reason.
3. For example, Cicero wrote to Terentia from the Italian port city of Brundisium
on 9th July 47 BC about transferring some funds to him:
“I wrote to Atticus [his close friend] later than I ought to have done about
what I want done. If you have a talk with him, you will learn what my
wishes are. There is no need to be more explicit here, seeing that I have
written to him. On that business and on all others please let me have a
letter from you. Take good care of your health. Good-bye.” [14.10]

28. 4. After Terentia took the action asked of her in that letter, we find Cicero writing
to his friend Atticus on various issues – including what Terentia has done in
reply to his request.
Brundisium 6th August 47 BC
“………… As for Terentia— and I’ll omit innumerable other incidents—doesn’t
the following top it all? You wrote to her and asked her to send me twelve
thousand sestertii, saying that that was the total balance of the money. She sent
me ten thousand, with a note declaring that that was the total balance. When she
has deducted such a petty amount from such a trifling total, you can feel pretty
sure what she has been doing where very large transactions are involved!
And Philotimus [Terentia’s guardian and her and Cicero’s steward who was supposed to oversee Terentia’s
management of Cicero’s affairs] not only does not come to see me himself, but also does not
let me know by letter even or through a messenger what he has been doing.
………….” (Letters to Atticus 11.24)

29. 5. a) Something feels different; and
b) Tullia’s marriage seems to have added to the atmosphere.
6. a) Although we get the impression that TULLIA had been besotted (as noted) with
DOLABELLA, Cicero did not think much of him and he was of little use to
his father-in-law (despite his links with Julius Caesar) once he and Tullia
became estranged.
b) Worse still, Cicero, who seems to have been short of funds, had great
difficulty getting back from Dolabella the dowry which had been passed to him
at the time of Tullia’s marriage once their divorce was formalized.
7. Cicero had always favoured Pompey politically and, when Julius Caesar
“crossed the Rubicon” and Pompey left Italy, it was not long before Cicero
followed him eastwards and joined his military camp.
8. a) But it was only a matter of a few months before Cicero was back in Italy, in
the port city of Brundisium where he seems to have lived for up to ten
months (rather than returning to Rome) and from where he wrote letters.

30. b) He corresponded, often rather curtly, with TERENTIA and doesn’t
appear eager to return to Rome (although his own safety may have been of prime
importance because he was unsure of a victorious Caesar’s attitude to him).
9. a) It is unclear when Cicero began to feel totally disaffected with Terentia or
when he began to have concerns about whether she had handled his
financial affairs honestly.
b) His letter to Atticus in which he expresses his suspicions is late - dated to
August 47 BC – but clearly by then he was feeling very cool towards his wife.
10. It was from Brundisium that his often short, curt letters to TERENTIA came–
although he did, we have to admit, usually end them with “Take good care
of your health”.

31. 11. a) On 23 January 49 BC before he left Italy to follow Pompey whose cause he
supported, Cicero, writing from Minturnae in southern Latium, was still
using very endearing phrases.
b) That letter had begun:
“Tullius [=Cicero] to TERENTIA, and to TULLIA, his two sweethearts”
and he had gone on to express his worries about their safety in Rome if
Julius Caesar were to seize control of the city.
c) And he ended on that occasion by writing: “My dearest hearts (meae
carissimae animae) write to me as often as possible and tell me how you
are. …..”
12. Once back in Italy (after he decided in August of 48 BC he could no longer place
his hopes on Pompey), his attitude seems to have changed, one could argue.

32. 13. While he may have had good reasons not connected with his relationship
with his wife, he was unenthusiastic about the idea of TERENTIA joining him
in Brundisium - although his daughter TULLIA did join him for a time.
14. In early November 48 BC he wrote from Brundisium:
“You say that your are glad about my safe arrival in Italy. I only hope that
you may continue to be glad. But I am afraid that …..I have taken steps
involving complications which I may find it difficult to unravel. Do your
best to help me, although what you can do I cannot think. And it is no
use your starting on a journey at such time as this. The way is both long
and unsafe; and I don’t see what good you can do if you do come here.
Goodbye.”
15. Is the correspondence, as has been claimed, becoming “increasingly
emotionless and reserved”?

33. 16. In terms of Cicero and Terentia’s relationship something changed
significantly sometime between 49 and 47 BC – even though Cicero still left the
administration of his affairs in TERENTIA’s hands.
17. One of the very last letters Cicero wrote to Terentia is particularly indicative of
the increasing lack of affection between the two, at least on Cicero’s part.
18. He clearly intended, at last, to make his way back to Rome from southern Italy
(having already left Brundisium) and intended to break his journey by calling in at
his estate in Tusculum (about 20 miles from Rome).
19. a) His letter of 1st October 47 BC from Venusia is often quoted.
b) It does not even have the ‘standard’ opening ‘endearments’ of all formal
Roman letters (always abbreviated): s.v.b.e.e.v. (si vales, bene est, ego valeo) (If
you are well, that is good, and I am well). [=“I trust that this finds you well”?]

34. c) The letter (as already noted) is short and curt:
“I think I’ll be arriving at my house at Tusculum either on the 7th or the day after.
See that everything is ready there. There will perhaps be several others with me,
and I think we’ll be staying there for a considerable time.
If there is no basin in the bathroom, have one put in. The same with everything
else necessary for supporting life and health.
Good-bye.”
20. Cicero and Terentia divorced either at the end of 47 BC or in 46 BC after
some 32 or so years of marriage.

35. ANOTHER MARRIAGE
1. In late 46 BC Cicero, now 60, married his ‘ward’, PUBLILIA, who was about 15.
2. a) Whatever other motives may have come into play, there is no doubt that
Cicero married her in order to get access to her money.
b) He had found himself in financial straits with Terentia’s dowry to repay.
3. He had been married only a few months when, in February 45 BC, his beloved
daughter TULLIA died (about a month after giving birth to a boy (who also
died)).
4. Cicero was grief-stricken over Tullia’s death and could not be consoled.
5. And very soon after this he divorced PUBLILIA who, allegedly, had been
jealous of Tullia and who had not shown much sympathy over Tullia’s death.
As for TERENTIA, divorced by Cicero at the age of 52 after a marriage of 32 or 33
years, she is said to have married twice more – although this cannot be confirmed.
She survived for another 51 years, outliving Cicero by 48 years and dying aged 103.