Clodia Pulchra

Clodia Pulchra, also known as Claudia (born 57 BC/56 BC) was the daughter of Fulvia by her first husband Publius Clodius Pulcher. She was the stepdaughter of Mark Antony and half-sister of Marcus Antonius Antyllus and Iullus Antonius.

Mark Antony was her mother's third husband. As Clodius had done previously, Antony was happy to accept Fulvia's money to boost his career. Following Julius Caesar's assassination on March 15, 44 BC, Antony formed the second triumvirate with Octavian and Lepidus and embarked on a savage proscription. To solidify the political alliance, Fulvia offered Clodia to young Octavian as wife, while Lepidus offered his wife's niece Servilia. Subsequently, Octavian chose Clodia.

Not much is known about their marriage and little information survives about Clodia. These actions caused political and social unrest, but when Octavian asked for a divorce from Clodia, Fulvia herself decided to take action. Together with Lucius Antonius, her brother-in-law, she raised eight legions in Italy to fight for Antonius' rights against Octavian, in what became the Perusine War. The army occupied Rome for a short time, but eventually retreated to Perusia (modern Perugia). Octavian besieged Fulvia and Lucius Antonius in the winter of 41-40 BC, starving them into surrender. Fulvia was exiled to Sicyon, where she died of a sudden illness.

Clodia

Clodia (born Claudia, c. 95 BC or c. 94 BC), nicknamed Quadrantaria, and often referred to in scholarship as Clodia Metelli ("Clodia the wife of Metellus"), was one of three known daughters of the ancient Roman patrician Appius Claudius Pulcher and either Caecilia Metella Balearica, or her cousin, Caecilia Metella daughter of Lucius Caecilius Metellus Diadematus.

Of Appius' three daughters, it is not certain whether Clodia was the eldest or the middle one. It is only known that she was not the youngest sister.

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

Like many other women of the Roman elite, Clodia was very well educated in Greek and Philosophy, with a special talent for writing poetry. Her life, immortalized in the writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero and also, it is generally believed, in the poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus, was characterized by perpetual scandal.

Life

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