Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Clodia

Born into an aristocratic family of Rome, Clodia was married as a young girl to a Roman official, divorced in 66 B.C., and then remarried to a first cousin. The marriage was known to be an unhappy one, and Clodia's infidelity, drinking, and gambling were common knowledge. When her husband died mysteriously, she was suspected of having poisoned him. Apart from a reputation for licentiousness, however, Clodia was an educated woman who studied philosophy and wrote poetry. Among her lovers was the poet Catullus, who wrote of her as Lesbia in the many poems he dedicated to her.