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« a helpful 1948 review of 'the ides of march'
and a rather personal biography
| Main | first impression on syme's 'roman revolution' »

March 20, 2008

major characters in 'the ides of march' – clodia, catullus

Clodia Pulchra, widow of Metellus Celer, is a major character in The Ides of March, Thornton Wilder's "fantasia" about the last nine months of Caius Julius Caesar's life.  Her brother, the famous/infamous Publius Clodius Pulcher, also makes appearances.

Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology has the stemma claudiorum, a brief entry on Clodia and a lengthy one on Clodius, as well as on the poet Caius Valerius Catullus, a biography cum assessment.

Clodia was Cicero's bête noire and appears in a number of novels/mysteries about Roman history, with various interpretations of her persona.  Probably her most sympathetic treatment is in the Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor.

By tradition, she is best known as the Lesbia in the poetry of Catullus, although some scholars express doubt about this. 

The Poems of Catullus.  Our group may remember that we discussed T. P. Wiseman's Catullus and his World : A Reappraisal a while ago.

For those with access to JSTOR, there is Lesbia's Charms, John W. Zarker, The Classical Journal, Vol. 68,  No. 2 (Dec., 1972 - Jan., 1973), pp. 107-115.

On Wikipedia (as usual handle with care), there are Clodia, Clodius, and Catullus.

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