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Everitt's Got A New One Coming Out


P.Clodius

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Everitt's Cicero was generally excellent. I should add that I'm not a huge fan of biography, as I think there is an unavoidable tendency to lionize or to demonize when it's simply not necessary. But I still loved Cicero.

 

One of my favorite scenes from the book concerns the last straw in Clodius' relationship with Cicero (in the chapter "Pretty-Boy's Revenge).

 

[T]he two men happened to be taking a candidate for political office down to the Forum together and entered into a conversation. Clodius asked if Cicero was in the habit of giving Sicilians who were in his clientela seats at gladiatorial shows. Cicero replied that he was not.

 

"Ah," replied Clodius. "But I'm a new patron of theirs and I'm going to institute the practice. But my sister, with all that free space at her disposal as an ex-Consul's wife, only gives me one wretched foot."

 

Unable to resist the gossip about their relationship, Cicero remarked: "Oh, don't grumble about one foot in your sister's case. You can always hoist the other."

 

Reminds me of Catullus 56 (which also alludes to the gossip about Clodia, who was Catullus' Lesbia).

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