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Cicero and Clodia

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This was a random sketch I did this morning, as a break from paying gigs. It won't be news to a lot of people that in days of yore I used to be keenly interested in ancient Roman history; and two of my favorite folks were Marcus Tullius Cicero, famous Republican orator [link] and Clodia Metelli, party girl, poetic muse and alleged poisoner. [link] From what I've read, these two were archenemies; they hated each others guts and spent a good long time plotting revenge against the other. Their mutual hatred erupted into a boffo court trial were Clodia accused one of Cicero's best pals of trying to poison her. Oh, and the pal in question was her ex-boyfriend. To make a long story short, Cicero completely humiliated Clodia in court, and got his friend off. Clodia disappears from the record; presumably she laid low for the rest of her life. But Cicero got on the wrong side of the following civil war, and died unpleasantly. Which makes you wonder, who finally "won" in the revenge sweepstakes- Cicero or Clodia?

It has occurred to me (and a lot of other authors), that the antagonism enjoyed by these two might have very well come from a soured affair or a miscalculated seduction. It sounds good to me; at times, Clodia and Cicero's train wreck of a "relationship" sounds like something out of "The War of the Roses," an old Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner movie about a divorce from hell. However, I find it romantic in a twisted way. It sure takes an obsessive single-mindedness to hate somebody for decades like that...

(These two actually inspired my characters here [link] and here: [link] )

More sketches of Cicero and Clodia can be seen here: [link]
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© 2008 - 2024 suburbanbeatnik
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Karageorges's avatar

Nice version of Cicero..

Greetings from Paris France