Clodia of Rome: Champion of the Republic

This incisive account from historian Boin (Alaric the Goth) rehabilitates the reputation of Clodia Metelli, a high-born Roman woman slandered by Cicero, but who Boin contests was a stalwart defender of Rome’s “most disadvantaged.” Confident and well-educated, Clodia used her “proximity to power” to advocate for the downtrodden. When her husband, Metellus, became consul in 60 BCE, Clodia quarreled publicly with him over her championing of her populist younger brother, Clodius. After Metellus died suddenly a year into their marriage, Clodia used the wealth she inherited from him to propel Clodius into power; his electoral promises ranged from feeding the hungry to reinstating the right to assembly. Pro-establishment foes watched the siblings’ rise with enmity, among them Cicero, who Boin recasts as a “bitter orator” with a “panicked sense of self-preservation.” When Clodia was betrayed by her lover Rufus—in a maelstrom of political intrigue, he was charged with a diplomat’s murder and an intent to kill Clodia herself—Cicero represented Rufus at trial. He turned the proceedings into a referendum on Clodia, inciting the jury’s hatred of outspoken women, laying out sordid sexual accusations, and insinuating she murdered her husband. A humiliated Clodia left Rome for exile, but she is resurrected here with elegant literary flair by Boin. It’s an astute feminist reframing of an ancient scandal. (Aug.)