Advance Praise for Clodia of Rome
“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
“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, and was punished by the powerful men she challenged. Clodia of Rome is a breath of fresh air blowing through the history of the Roman world.”
— Mike Duncan, author of Hero of Two Worlds and The Storm Before the Storm
“Scintillating. . . . Clodia has always fascinated—but she has also always been a footnote. Here, she has the attention she deserves.”
— Catherine Nixey, author of The Darkening Age
“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 writes with a flair that Clodia herself would have admired. This is a real-life political thriller that takes us through the gritty streets and sumptuous mansions of Rome and reveals how its republic worked.”
— Josiah Osgood, author of Lawless Republic: The Rise of Cicero and the Decline of Rome
“You cannot read Cicero without wanting to have dinner with Clodia; Douglas Boin’s lively and authoritative account brings us as close as we will ever get. This book reveals a woman as principled as she was glamorous, possessed of a concern for political injustice as much as an instinct for luxurious sensuality. Boin brings to sparkling, tensely-charged life a rare moment in Roman history—one in which it seemed that all the entrenched interests and old assumptions might truly be up for grabs.”
— Honor Cargill-Martin, author of She Speaks: The Women of Greek Myths in Their Own Words
“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
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Who Was Clodia?
Douglas Boin is Professor of History at Saint Louis University and the author of Alaric the Goth, Coming Out Christian in the Roman World, and two additional books on antiquity. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his husband.
