Clodia e Sempronia 

Clodia and Sempronia

History of two rebels

Clodia, better known as Catullo’s Lesbia. Which woman, more than her, is described by contrasting sources? Catullo raises her for love and then denigrates her mad with jealousy, abandoned and disappointed for the betrayed fides: from “mea vita”, “mea puella” to “Cum suis vivat valeatque moechis…” (“May she live enjoying her three hundred lovers…..”, Carmina 11). Cicero, in his Pro Caelio oration, expresses only negative things of her, he defines her as an impudent whore, “Clitennestra”, that is a vile murderer, “quadrantaria”, that is to say a cheap woman. The orator accuses her of incest with her brother Clodio  and to have poisoned her husband to inherit his patrimony, makes it a defamatory tool to damage Clodio, his fierce enemy, and to defend Celio Rufo. But are they reliable accuses? Clodia lived in an absolutely nonconformist way if compared to the female model of ancient times, above all when we consider that she was a widow; her destiny should have been even her committing suicide to follow her dead husband. But she continued to live her life  the way she liked, choosing her lovers, abandoning them when she got tired, instead of waiting for old age and death, closed off at home.  

Among the participants to Catilina’s conspiracy  in 63 a.C. there were some women and among them Sempronia, made famous by the portrait Sallustio created in De Catilinae coniuratione. Woman of noble birth, Decimo Bruto’s mother who was one of Caesar’s murderers, descendent from the ancient and noble gens Sempronia, to whom the Gracchis belonged too. Sallustio outlines her positive qualities, but mixing them with an absolute judge of moral condemnation: “litteris Graecis et Latinis docta, psallere, saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae, multa alia, quae instrumenta luxuriae sunt. Sed ei cariora semper omnia quam decus atque pudicitia fuit.” Elegance, charme, culture are opposed to the lack of shame, lust and absolute lack of loyalty and decorum. The vices described by the great writer make Sempronia the exact opposite of the Roman “decent” matron, chaste and modest to the point that her own boldness, so unusual for a woman, is defined “manly”. Therefore she was a woman who deserves to be remembered as nonconformist and endowed with great courage to rebel, to follow her inclination, her aspirations, in a male-dominated era and society closed to the female emancipation as was that of ancient Rome.