A thrilling new history of the late Roman Republic, told through one woman’s quest for justice. One of Rome’s most powerful women, Clodia has been maligned over two thousand years as a promiscuous, husband-murdering harlot―thanks to her starring role in one of Cicero’s most famous speeches in the Forum. But Cicero was lying, in defense of his own property and interests. Like so many women libeled or erased from history, Clodia had a life that was much more interesting, complex, and nuanced than the corrupted version passed down through generations Drawing on neglected sources and deep, empathetic study of Roman lives, classicist Douglas Boin reconstructs Clodia’s eventful passage through her politically divided and tumultuous times, from her privileged childhood to her picking up a family baton of egalitarian activism. A widow and single mother, Clodia had a charisma and power that rivaled her male contemporaries and struck fear into the heart of Rome’s political elite. That is, until a sensational murder trial, rife with corruption and told here in riveting detail, brought about her fall from grace. For generations of women who came after her―including a young Cleopatra, who might have met a disgraced Clodia when she first came to Rome―Clodia’s story would loom as a cautionary tale about the hostilities women would face when they challenged the world of men. Freed from the caricature that Cicero painted of her, Clodia serves as a reminder of countless women whose stories have been erased from the historical record. In a Rome whose citizens were engaged in heated debates on imperialism, immigration, and enfranchisement, amidst rising anxieties about women’s role in society, Clodia was an icon―one worth remembering today. 12 illustrations "[Boin] has succeeded in embedding Clodia in a much less hostile environment than the one in which she found herself in Ciceronian Rome. She emerges as intelligent, lively, decisive and strong-willed." ― Daisy Dunn, Literary Review "Incisive… A humiliated Clodia left Rome for exile, but she is resurrected here with elegant literary flair by Boin. [ Clodia of Rome ] is an astute feminist reframing of an ancient scandal." ― Publishers Weekly "Most people today remember the Roman aristocratic woman Clodia as the target of one of Cicero's nastiest works, but Douglas Boin has written a wonderful new book…that recovers just how central she was to the political networks of the late Roman Republic. Clodia was a woman in a world of men and a truly principled reformer, and exploring her story tells us an extraordinary amount about a time and place we thought we knew so well." ― Patrick Wyman, Tides of History "[A] wonderful new half situation-comedy, half murder-tragedy. Clodia of Rome: Champion of the Republic [is] about an extremely well-born child who becomes the center of a drama that we know as Julius Caesar . But this book is approaching the same story with almost all the same cast from the point of view of a young woman who grows up to marry and be proper, as long as her husband lives. Clodia―her last name also tells a story also of her patronage: the Appian Way, or the aqueduct that feeds Rome." ― John Batchelor, CBS Eye on the World " Clodia of Rome is wonderfully annotated, and Boin’s extensive reading is evident on every page, and, delightfully, he sprinkles plenty of his own translations of ancient passages throughout the text. But fear not: none of that spoils the fun." ― Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review "Boin traces volatile political intrigue and upheaval in Rome, Greece, and Egypt and also conveys quotidian realities of Roman life, including food, medicine, and women’s cosmetics. A brisk, richly detailed narrative." ― Kirkus Reviews "In [Boin’s] energetic and unsparing voice we learn about [Clodia’s] ancestry, her life, and the world around her. As a result, we get a much more nuanced appreciation of Clodia and the role that she played in the last few decades of the Republic." ― Dr. Thomas J. West III, Omnivorous Substack "A brilliant portrait of the most glamorous, enigmatic, and fascinating woman in the history of the late Roman republic―a book I have been waiting to read since studying Cicero’s evisceration of her when I was sixteen." ― Tom Holland, author of Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic "A brilliant, charismatic, politically savvy woman is ruined by misogyny and malice via a high- profile murder case―one over 2,000 years old. Douglas Boin’s spellbinding account of a Roman woman named Clodia, who died in 44 B.C., shows his mastery of archaeological storytelling, excavating the complex layers of a long overdue exoneration of an extraordinary and timeless woman." ― Sarah Parcak, author of Archaeology from Space "Douglas Boin valiantly recovers, reconstructs, and restores the reputation of a strong and independent woman who flouted social norms, attacked the prevailing system of inequality and injustice