• The name of the patrician gens from which Claudius (Clodius) Pulcher came is the gens Claudia. Traditionally, it has been assumed that Clodius was the plebeian version of the name, but Clodius had used the spelling with an "o" before 59 B.C. when he was adopted, and when Clodius was adopted it was into a different plebeian gens. Also, his sister Clodia (once, Claudia, and thought to be the Lesbia about whom Catullus composed poems) was not adopted, so this assumption seems doubtful. In defense of the tradition, however, Lintott says that in 60 B.C. Clodius tried (and failed) to be made a plebeian via a plebiscitum, so the thought of being plebeian was already there. Clodius may reflect the pronunciation he preferred. Pulcher means beautiful and Clodius Pulcher's family seems to have been blessed with good looks. Earlier Claudians had included extraordinarily good and bad men.
• "Clodius / Claudius"
• Publius Clodius Pulcher was the youngest of the 6 children of Appius Claudius Pulcher.
• Clodius married Fulvia, daughter of Sulla, on whom he fathered a daughter, Claudia, who briefly married Octavian (Augustus), and a son, Publius Claudius Pulcher
• Then Clodius was taken by pirates. After his release, he went to Antioch
• Now Clodius, after being captured by the pirates and released by them in consequence of their fear of Pompey, came to Antioch in Syria, declaring that he would be their ally against the Arabians, with whom they were then at variance.
• Clodius was instrumental in forcing Cicero into exile after Cicero had members of the conspiracy of Catiline executed extra-legally. Incidentally, Lintott says Clodius learned the advantages of having a gang behind him from Catiline. After Cicero was gone, Clodius' men demolished Cicero's house and the adjacent portico of Catulus. There they consecrated a shrine to the personification of liberty, Libertas. Elaine Fantham points out that before Catulus, the house had belonged to Fulvius Flaccus who had been murdered along with Gaius Gracchus, a hero of the people.
• "Gendering Clodius"
   Eleanor Winsor Leach
   The Classical World, Vol. 94, No. 4 (Summer, 2001), pp. 335-359.
• "Clodius / Claudius"
    Andrew M. Riggsby
    Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 2002, pp. 117-12.
• "Liberty and the People in Republican Rome"
    Elaine Fantham
    Transactions of the American Philological Association, 2005, pp. 209-229.
• P. Clodius Pulcher--'Felix Catilina?'"
    A. W. Lintott
    Greece & Rome, Oct., 1967, pp. 157-169.
• "Power and Ritual: The Crowd at Clodius' Funeral"
    Geoffrey S. Sumi
    Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 1997, pp. 80-102

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•  

  Mother of the gods

   

  from Cybele to the Virgin Mary
•    

  An itinerant mother -- In the Athenian Agora -- The invention of a mythology -- The mother's entrance into the Roman Republic -- The origin of the Mater Magna -- Attis in the Imperial period -- From mother of the gods to Mother of God.
• Borgeaud (history of religion, U. of Geneva) traces the image of the mother goddess in its various forms and uses across ten centuries, and discusses how the goddess simultaneously served as both nurturer and "other" in many cultures. According to Borgeaud, by the time Christianity became widespread in the Roman world, expectations were already established about the nature of the mother of God, and the ways in which women, whether mere mortals or divine, should receive the Christ. This is a reprint in English of the original edition of 1996 entitled La Mere des dieux: De Cybele a la Vierge Marie. Annotation #169;2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
• Borgeaud (Univ. of Geneva) has written an important study on a topic that has garnered much interest, engendered far-ranging theoretical constructs, and ignited considerable controversy, especially in recent decades. Borgeaud wisely eschews the broad stroke, choosing instead to concentrate on specific actions and actors as the "mother of the gods" passes from Asia Minor to Rome, from Phrygian religious sensibilities to Christianity. Borgeaud has read widely and chooses judiciously from among an array of pictorial and written remains to construct a series of striking images that reveal and unravel the amazingly complex paths taken by the goddess and her companions during a millennium of antiquity. Even well-known events, such as the arrival of the goddess in Rome (in the form of a stone), derive an unexpected freshness from Borgeaud's fine narrative. Borgeaud's readers are well served by his updated preface to this English-language edition, which is the result of a sensitive rendering by Lysa Hochroth. This monograph should have a wide appeal for those with the requisite background in classical or religious studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Libraries supporting classical and religious studies at the upper undergraduate level and above. Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty. Reviewed by L. J. Greenspoon.

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• Definition: Megalesia (also known as Megalensia or Megalenses Ludi) was a Roman festival, established in 191 B.C., to honor the Magna Mater 'Great Mother' goddess -- Cybele. The Megalesia was held from 4-10 April or on April 4 and 10.
• After completing Cybele's temple in 193 B.C., Rome celebrated the Megalesia each year, with feasting, extravagance, and performances before her temple. The magistrate in charge, the curule aedile put on Cybele's games -- dramatic presentations (no racetracks, gladiators or beast fights), including Terence's comedies.

• Vitruvius reports that "basketwork," lath or cane woven together and covered with mortar or plaster, might be used by the poor or for interior walls, particularly on upper stories. This construction was neither moisture resistant nor fireproof, but it was lightweight, cheap and quickly built. Of course, these walls have not survived.
• About the third century BCE, Roman builders discovered that volcanic ash, when added to lime mortar, made a cement that cured to a rocklike hardness even under water. Mixed with sand and gravel, this material was the equivalent of modern concrete.
• In the time of the Republic, the core of a wall would be concrete, but the facings remained brick or stone. At first, the concrete might be poured between facings of masonry, and layers of rubble added. Eventually, walls became essentially a mass of concrete, poured into a wooden form and finished before it was completely set.
• We might ask ourselves why Roman builders bothered with facings of brick or stone for concrete walls. They certainly added nothing to the strength, and they were covered in the finished wall with plaster and paint. The striking opus reticulatum walls we see today at Pompeii and other ruins were likely not visible when the buildings were in use. Perhaps we can look to the basic conservatism of the Roman people. If a man was paying to have a wall built, he expected to see brick or stone.

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