Clodia Metelli

The Tribune's Sister
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-537501-5
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 371 g

Reihe: Women in Antiquity

First full-length biography of Clodia Metelli in any language
New suggestions about the influence of Cicero's oratory on Catullus' poetry

Clodia 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 contexts of her family background, the societal expectations for a woman of her rank, and the turbulent political climate in which she operated. It weighs the value of the several kinds of testimony about her and attempts to extract a picture as faithful to historical truth as possible. The manner in which Clodia was represented in writings of the period, and the motives of their authors in portraying her as they did, together shed considerable light on the role played by female figures in Roman fiction and historiography.

Zielgruppe

Students and scholars of Ancient Roman history and ancient women's history

Autoren/Hrsg.

Skinner, Marilyn B.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Biographien & Autobiographien: Historisch, Politisch, Militärisch
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Römische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Genealogies of Clodia Metelli and Her Siblings
Maps
Introduction
1.: Cicero as a Biographical Source
2.: The Gens Claudia
3.: Women and Wealth
4.: The Claudii Pulchri
5.: The Metelli
6.: Palatine Medea
7.: : Lesbia
Afterword: A Woman in a Man's World
Endnotes
Works Cited

Über Autor(innen)

Marilyn B. Skinner, Professor of Classics, University of Arizona