DANGEROUS LIAISONS: DISCUSS THE women BEHIND THE BONA DEA SCANDAL OF 62 BC.

 

Discuss the Rumors behind the Bona Dea Scandal from the perspective of Caesar’s Mother, Sister, Wife, Cicero’s wife Terentia, OR P. Clodius and his sister Clodia, the mistress of Catullus.

 
Background information:
 
In 62 BC a number of events involving aristocratic women culminated in the trial of P. Clodius for sacrilege during the sacred rites of the Bona Dea at Rome. Pompey the Great divorced his wife Mucia when he returned from the East in 62 BC; rumor had it she was having an affair with Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar divorced Pompeia (no relation to Pompey) following the scandal of the Bona Dea sacrilege. Pompeia was having an affair with P. Clodius, who disguised himself as a woman to visit her during these most sacred, exclusively female rites (Cic. Att. 1.13.3; 1.14.5-6, 16.1f.; Suet. Iul. 6.2, 74.2; Plut. Caes. 9-10; Plut. Cic. 29; Dio 37.45.2; Schol Bob. 85 St). The ceremony transpired at Caesar’s house, where Caesar’s own mother and sister apprehended Clodius in their midst. Suet. Iul. 74.2: “When summoned as a witness against Clodius, Caesar declared that he had no evidence, although both his mother Aurelia and his sister Julia had given the same jurors a faithful account of the whole affair; and on being asked why it was then that he had put away his wife, he replied, ‘Because I maintain that the members of my family should be free from suspicion as well as from accusation.’”
 
As Clodius’ trial for sacrilege approached, Clodius’ sister, Clodia, made sexual advances toward Cicero in an effort to gain his assistance in her brother’s defense. Clodius claimed as his alibi that he had not been in Rome on the day of the rites; however, Cicero had seen Clodius in Rome merely hours before the ceremony. His wife, Terentia, was so upset by Clodia’s advances toward her husband that she insisted that he testify at the trial, which he did. Clodius was acquitted by three votes (31-25), following a significant effort at jury bribery. Clodia was married to Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer, soon to be consul (60 BC), whose sister by blood was Mucia, the woman divorced by Pompey. She is traditionally viewed as the mistress of the Roman poet Catullus.
 

How can so many aristocratic women have become embroiled in this controversy? What were their motives? What does this seemingly minor incident say about the role of aristocratic women in the political affairs of Late Repubican Rome? While E. Fantham et al. (1994) elaborate a pattern of rising female autonomy among aristocratic Roman females at the this time, the progression from female independence in private life to proactive female behavior in politically charged judicial proceedings seems unprecedented.

 

E. Fantham et al., Women in the Classical World, Oxford 1994, Chapter 10, Excursus: The “New Woman”: Representation and Reality, 280-293.

 


Plutarch, Life of Caesar

 

Plut_caes2

 

Plut. Cicero

 

Plut_cic1a

 

Plut_cic2a

 

 

 

IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL NOTE REGARDING THE BONA DEA TRIAL

 

The rites of the Bona Dea Goddess were typically held in the house of a Roman magistrate with imperium (consul or praetor). For more about the actual rites of the Bona Dea, how they were conducted, where, why, and by whom, see the Wikipedia article which is very useful

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_Dea

 

In 63 the rites were conducted in the house of the consul, M. Tullius Cicero, with his wife Terentia as host. The rites were presided over by the Vestal Virgins. Terentia’s sister, Fabia, was a if not the leading Vestal Virgin at this time. We are told by Plut. Cic. That the Virgins saw an omen supporting Cicero’s decision to execute the Catalinarian conspirators and sent Terentia immediately to her husband (who could not be present at his own house during the rites) with this news.

 

Plut. Cic. 20: It being evening, and the common people in crowds expecting without, Cicero went forth to them, and told them what was done, and then, attended by them, went to the house of a friend and near neighbour; for his own was taken up by the women who were celebrating, with secret rites the feast of the goddess whom the Romans call the Good (i.e, Bona Dea), and the Greeks the Women's goddess. For a sacrifice is annually performed to her in the consul's house, either by his wife or mother, in the presence of the Vestal Virgins. And having got into his friend's house privately, a few only being present, he began to deliberate how he should treat these men (the arrested conspirators being held under guard). …Whilst Cicero was doubting what course to take, a portent happened to the women in their sacrificing. For on the altar, where the fire seemed wholly extinguished, a great and bright flame issued forth from the ashes of the burnt wood; at which others were affrighted, but the Vestal Virgins called to Terentia, Cicero's wife, and bade her haste to her husband, and command him to execute what he had resolved for the good of his country, for the goddess had sent a great light to the increase of his safety and glory. Terentia, therefore, as she was otherwise in her own nature neither tender-hearted nor timorous, but a woman eager for distinction (who, as Cicero himself says, would rather thrust herself into his public affairs, than communicate her domestic matters to him), told him these things, and excited him against the conspirators.

 

What makes this interesting is that Terentia’s sister, Fabia, the Vestal Virgin, was accused (prosecuted and acquitted) of having slept with Cataline in 73 BC (sleeping with a Vestal Virgin was regarded as a crime of incest against the goddess).

 

Sall. Cat.  15 Catiline, in his youth, had been guilty of many criminal connections, (such as having illicit sex) with a virgin of noble birth, with a priestess of Vesta (Fabia), and of many other offences of this nature in defiance alike of law and religion.

 

Ascon. 91 C: Fabia, was a Vestal Virgin accused of incest with Cataline, but she was acquitted. This Fabia was the sister of Terentia, the wife of Cicero. (The prosecution was apparently conducted by P. Clodius in his early years).

 

Plut. Cato 19 (undated anecdote, but follows discussion of Cato’s quaestorship in 64 BC): Once when Clodius, the seditious orator, to promote his violent and revolutionary projects, traduced to the people some of the priests and priestesses (among whom Fabia, sister to Cicero's wife, Terentia, ran great danger), Cato having boldly interfered, and having made Clodius appear so infamous that he was forced to leave the town, was addressed, when it was over, by Cicero, who came to thank him for what he had done. "You must thank the commonwealth," said he, for whose sake alone he professed to do everything. [It’s not clear if this anecdote refers to the time of the incest trial of Fabia in 73 BC, but it’s possible.]

 

MRR 2.114, 73 BC Catiline was accused of incest with Terentia’s half-sister Fabia the chief Vestal Virgin. Fabia was tried and acquitted by M. Pupius Piso: Cic. Tog. Cand., and Ascon. 91 C; Plut. Cat. Min. 19.3; Oros. 6.3.1; Cic. Brut. 236; Cat. 3.9; Cic. Comm. Pet. 10; Sall. Cat 15

 

SUMMARY: TO DISCUSS CLODIUS’ SACRILEGE IN 62 BC, YOU MUST CONSIDER THE CONTEXT OF WHAT THE VESTAL VIRGINS PRESIDING OVER THE SAME RITES IN 63 BC DID WITH RESPECT TO CICERO’S EXECUTION OF THE CATALINARIAN CONSPIRATORS.