Clodia engaged in several affairs with married men ( possibly including the poet, Catullus-see below ) and slaves, becoming at the same time a notorious gambler and drinker.

As a widow, Clodia became known as a merry one, taking several lovers.

The poet Catullus wrote several love poems concerning a frequently unfaithful woman he called Lesbia, identified in the mid-second century AD by the writer Apuleius ( Apologia 10 ) as a " Clodia.

* Clodia makes several appearances in the Roma Sub Rosa series of historical mystery novels by the American author Steven Saylor.

* Clodia plays a significant role in several books of the SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts.

With the wealth of the Imperial Age, several important figures decided to build their villae in Trastevere, including Clodia, ( Catullus ' " friend ") and Julius Caesar ( his garden villa, the Horti Caesaris ).

Like many other women of the Roman elite, Clodia was very well educated in Greek and Philosophy, with a special talent for writing poetry.

Caelius and Clodia soon became lovers.

* Clodia accuses her former lover Marcus Caelius Rufus of trying to poison her.

Hailing from the Etruscan city of Volterra, it has been speculated that Pupienus was the son of Marcus Pupienus Maximus, a Senator who was the first member of his family to enter the Senate, and wife Clodia Pulchra.

In the trial of Marcus Caelius Rufus in 56 BC, the prominent socialite Clodia was described by the defense as living the life of a harlot in Rome and in the " crowded resort of Baiae ", indulging in beach parties and drinking sessions.

Bruun ’ s scholarly observation provides background on the defense case of Marcus Caelius Rufus ’, suggesting that Caelius ’ scornful lover Clodia, the sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher, brought charges against him proclaiming he attempted to use poison on her.

Bruun finds this passage not sufficient, suggesting instead “ it seems baffling that the use of water, should have been connected to Clodia ’ s allegedly loose morals .” Again dispelling Cicero ’ s connection of Clodia to water and sexual immorality, Bruun proclaims this to be antithetical to Clodia ’ s case by stating, “ the evidence from the Roman world for ritual cleansing with water after sexual “ pollution ” is very meager and different in character .” Bruun argues within his next sub-point that more compelling evidence exists on Clodia ’ s immorality in connection with water in the late Roman Republican period, ultimately by providing an analysis on Marcus Caleius Rufus ’ speech on illegal water conduits.

Sempronia's grandchildren included Clodia Pulchra the first wife of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, afterwards the emperor Augustus ; as well as two sons of Antonius, Marcus Antonius Antyllus, and Iullus Antonius.

He was the full brother of Marcus Antonius Antyllus, half-brother of Clodia Pulchra ( first wife of Augustus through his mother's first marriage ), Antonia Major and half-brother of Antonia Minor through his father's marriage to Octavia Minor and Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene II and Ptolemy Philadelphus through his father's marriage to Cleopatra.

After the relationship with Caelius was over in 56 BC, Clodia publicly accused him of attempted poisoning.

After the trial of Caelius, in which Caelius was found not guilty, little or possibly nothing is heard of Clodia, and the date of her death is unknown.

Cicero assumes the voice of Caecus in a scathing prosopopoeia, where Caecus is incensed at Clodia for associating with Caelius, a member of the middle equestrian class instead of the upper patrician class.

Clodius and Clodia were determined to punish Caelius for leaving them.

The speeches in defense began with Caelius making witty jeers at Clodia, while Crassus defended against the actual charges, and finally Cicero attacking Clodia.

He made accusations that Clodia was no better than a prostitute and claimed Caelius was a smart man to disassociate himself from her.

Bruun also concludes that Cicero, who remained the legal defender of Caelius, ultimately used the conceptual phrase aqua inceste uterere in “ referring to the commonly known possession of a water supply by some brothels in Rome, while at the same time implying that Clodia was a prostitute .” The body of Bruun ’ s Water for Roman Brothels is subdivided into multiple different subtopics ; the first one devoted to Cicero ’ s personification of Appius Claudius Caecus.

Brunn provides Frontius ’ De aquaeductu Urbis Romae from AD 100 as an example of the “ various illegal uses to which public water in Rome was being diverted .” Christer Bruun suggests that as a recent find by a contemporary author, Caelius actually gave a speech in 50 BC when he was a curule aedile, ultimately proclaiming “ the worst misappropriation of public water in Rome ” which was due “ all the brothels, were enjoying an illegal supply of running water .” Furthermore, Bruun concludes that although these possible arguments can explain why Cicero attempted to connect Clodia to immorality and water, he simply used this argumentation to suggest Clodia ’ s case against Caelius was unfounded.

Leigh suggests the focus of his thesis, remains not to identify the “ role comedy takes in the Pro Caelio as what it might mean for our understanding of rhetorical practice to state that comedy takes such a role .” Leigh further suggests that the role within his work is to answer “ what, in particular, is the relationship between comic morality and the locus as a unit of rhetorical argumentation, and what is the evidence for its historical development at Rome ?” Leigh ’ s analysis suggests that the comedic influence within Cicero ’ s defense speech remains focused on the distinction between the ill-fated young male lover ( Caelius ) and the assault generated at him by an immoral prostitute ( Clodia Pulcher ).

" According to Leigh, the jury at Caelius ’ prosecution would have recognized “ both stock types familiar from the comic stage ," meaning both Caelius and Clodia.

Leigh also provides historical and literary evidence for the comic construction of the relationship between the courtesan Clodia and her young lover Caelius, by referencing Plutarch ’ s discussion of this as erotic entertainment and its use as a rhetorical device.

Dorey ’ s article “ Cicero, Clodia, & the ‘ Pro Caelio ,’” Dorey argued that although Cicero stressed Clodia ’ s involvement in the case against Caelius as an important role, she only played a secondary part.

Catullus ’ Rufus, though, is portrayed as a competing lover of Lesbia, and thus could be the same Caelius Rufus featured in Cicero ’ s speech who, of course, had an affair with Clodia Metelli.

Catullus writes about a former friend named Rufus who betrayed him in an unspecified way, perhaps referring to the affair with Clodia ( usually identified with the loved then reviled " Lesbia " of Catullus's poetry ), the alleged attempt of Caelius to poison her, or subsequent attacks on her through Cicero.

It was probably in Rome that Catullus fell deeply in love with the " Lesbia " of his poems, who is usually identified with Clodia Metelli, a sophisticated woman from the aristocratic house of patrician family Claudii Pulchri and sister of the infamous Publius Clodius Pulcher.

* The epistolary novel Ides of March by Thornton Wilder centers on Julius Caesar, but prominently features Catullus, his poetry, his relationship ( and correspondence ) with Clodia, correspondence from his family and a description of his death.

* The new musical TULLY ( In No Particular Order ), which appeared in the 2007 New York Musical Theatre Festival, loosely adapts the poems of Catullus while retaining the non-linear structure of the published edition, exploring his relationships with both Clodia and Juventius, renamed Julie, and the timeless nature of memory and love.

Catullus addresses a number of poems to " Lesbia ," a married woman with whom he has an affair, usually identified as a fictionalized Clodia, sister of the prominent popularist politician Clodius Pulcher.

Popular critical consensus has long identified Clodia Metelli, who features so prominently in the speech, as Catullus ’ famed lover Lesbia.

The 2nd century writer Apuleius claimed that Catullus gave his lover Clodia the pseudonym Lesbia ; Wiseman traces Apuleius ’ s source for this claim to the historian Suetonius, and Suetonius ’ sources to C. Julius Hyginus ’ s De Vita Rebusque Illustrium Virorum.

However, because all three sisters possessed the name Clodia, difficulties arise in proving that Catullus ’ s lover must have been the Clodia Metelli featured in the Pro Caelio.

The most common evidence for this connection is the implied charge of incest usually detected in Catullus 79 in comparison to the charges of incest against Clodia Metelli in the Pro Caelio.

One major potential connection between Lesbia and Clodia Metelli is the similarity between implications of incest apparent in Catullus 79 and the Cicero ’ s charges of incest in the Pro Caelio.

However, this association is weakened somewhat by James L. Butrica ’ s argument in “ Clodius the Pulcher In Catullus and Cicero .” He emphasizes the prominence of the word pulcher in Catullus ’ s poem and acknowledges that it identifies the character Lesbius with Clodius Pulcher and Lesbia with Clodia Metelli.

In the view of Peter Green, "' Cynthia ' was the pseudonym which Propertius used to indicate his mistress Hostia in his poems ; the girl who wept for her sparrow was ' Lesbia ,' the mistress of Catullus, whose real name was Clodia.

The feminine form is Clodia.

* To cement their reconciliation Octavian agreed to marry Clodia, a daughter of Antony's wife Fulvia by her former husband Publius Clodius Pulcher.

Octavian divorced Clodia Pulchra and marries Scribonia, a sister of Lucius Scribonius Libo and a follower of Sextus.

Cicero In the court case Pro Caelio, the name Medea is mentioned at least five times, as a way to make fun of Clodia, sister of P. Clodius Pulcher, the man who exiled Cicero.

There is no further mention of the previously famous Clodia.

Despite having married Octavia, Octavian's sister, in 40 BC ( Octavian had married Antony's stepdaughter Clodia Pulchra three years earlier ), Antony openly lived in Alexandria with Cleopatra VII of Egypt, even siring children with her.

Clodia, ( born Claudia Pulchra Prima or Maior or also Quadrantaria c. 95 BC or c. 94 BC and often referred to in scholarship as Clodia Metelli (" Clodia the wife of Metellus "), was the third daughter of the patrician Appius Claudius Pulcher and Caecilia Metella Balearica.

She is not to be confused with her niece, Clodia Pulchra, who was briefly married to Octavian.

Along with her brother Publius Clodius Pulcher, she changed her patrician name to Clodia, with a plebeian connotation.

Clodia was married to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, her first cousin, with whom she had a daughter Caecilia Metella.