Clodia, or Lesbia, in a painting by Edward John Paynter (1907)
She is one of the most famous women of Latinity thanks to the poems of Catullo and to the invectives of Cicero: how much do we know about the life of Lesbia?
Little, and such little we can only reconstruct thanks to what was told by the man who loved her most and, at the same time, most hated her.
Some biographical information about her you can find them in the following article, which I wrote some time ago for the news.it portal.
Clodia, or Lesbia, and Catullus in a painting by Giulio Aristide Sartorio (private collection)
Clodia, or Lesbia, it owes its undying fame to the love and genius of Caio Valerio Catullo , the great Veronese poet who fell madly in love with it and who made it immortal by singing thanks and talents, not always appreciable in truth, in the epigrams of his Liber.
The pseudonym with which the artist hid her identity, paid homage to the island of the Greek poet Sappho.
Origins, vices (many) and virtues (few) of Lesbia
Clodia (or Claudia ) belonged to the gens Claudia , one of the most noble and ancient Roman patrician families.
She was very beautiful, brilliant, casual, cultured and so uninhibited as to fill the worldly chronicles of the time, ready to grasp and spread every weakness and to exalt the many vices that were constantly attributed to her.
She was self-centered, unscrupulous and of unbridled ambition, she did not hesitate to enter the beds of many powerful people and to get out of them with equal ease (she was also a lover of Caesar and Pompeo ).
Brother tribune and enmity with Cicero
Monument to Catullus
Clodia was the sister of Publio Clodio Pulcro, tribune of the plebs.
Charming and demagogue, the young man was the idol of the people, whose desires he played to his liking and whose will he skilfully used in his favor.
For political and private reasons Clodius became the sworn enemy of Marco Tullio Cicero and it was also Clodia who paid the public expense.
When the woman sued her former lover in court Marco Celio, the man enjoyed the defense and talent of Rome's most famous lawyer.
Thus, in the prayer Pro Marco Celio , the Arpinate sneakily took advantage of the delicious opportunity to lash out at his rival through the alleged turpitudes of his sister.
The great speaker was really poisonous towards the young woman, of whom she told about libertine habits and cravings.
She came to argue, not too covertly, the existence of a sexual relationship between Clodia and her brother, offering the image of an inveterate pervert as well as a relentless harlot.
But what kind of woman was Clodia, the beloved Lesbia of Catullus?
A woman like many
Lesbia in a painting by Stefano Bakalovich
Nothing can be objected to Cicero's flawless style and oratorical skills, but it is necessary to add that the lawyer often used his skills as a cutting and sharp weapon against enemies.
He often lashed out at someone out of envy or personal grudges.
That is why we can assume at least some exaggeration in painting Lesbia's character traits, she is guilty of being the sister of a bitter enemy of her.
To tell the truth, however, even Catullus, who adored her, especially in moments of greater lucidity and objectivity, when his mind was less clouded by the drowsiness of love and the blindness of passion, could not help but recognize the many , too many defects.
Clodia was an unrepentant infidel, a superficial and fatuous person, an egocentric who placed herself and her ambitious goals above everything and everyone.
In general, even from the epigrams of Catullus, you do not get a particularly positive image.
The truth is that Clodia probably did not have the gift of any extraordinary virtue or qualities such as to justify the great clamor aroused among contemporaries and in the following centuries.
After all, the Rome of the time was overflowing with women with characteristics similar to hers.
The conclusion?
It too would be lost in the darkness of the times if she had not been eternalized by the poems of Catullus, who loved her, and targeted by the invectives of Cicero, who hated her ( Article taken from:Notizie.it).