Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World

The Politics of Prostitution: Clodia, Cicero, and Social Order in the Late Roman Republic

The Politics of Prostitution Clodia, Cicero, and Social Order in the Late Roman Republic marsha mccoy Cicero’s scathing attack on Clodia in his speech defending M. Caelius Rufus in the spring of 56 BCE has usually been seen as the result of the complex political situation of the time and Cicero’s desire to take revenge on her brother Clodius for his role in Cicero’s exile in 58 BCE.1 It certainly served the latter purpose since Caelius’ acquittal on all charges against him seems to have resulted in the complete disappearance of Clodia from public life (Austin 1960, viii). But the unusual virulence of Cicero’s public attack on the private behavior of an elite Roman woman, in particular his accusation that Clodia was a meretrix, a prostitute , finds no parallel in other criminal trials of the period (see discussions of prostitutes and criminal trials in McGinn [1998] and Alexander [1990]). Indeed, the use of the word “meretrix” to describe a Roman woman of elite standing is unprecedented in Latin literature; even Catullus at his worst never actually calls Lesbia a meretrix.2 Erich Gruen has shown that by the late republic political struggles among the elites had moved into the law courts where they were fought out in rounds of charges and countercharges of criminal behavior (Gruen 1974, 260–357; Gruen 1968). In this paper I argue that Cicero in his defense of Caelius was building on his prosecution of Verres fourteen years before in the 177 hope of turning the law courts into an arena for critiquing and shaping social behavior; this strategy was part of his more general efforts to reform Roman civil society in order to prevent its collapse. Use of the Term “Meretrix” No Latin authors employ the word “meretrix” more often than Cicero except writers of comedy and literary criticism. Plautus uses the word 72 times, Seneca the Elder 85 times, and Quintilian employs it 114 times, some in passages quoting from Cicero himself to comment on them. The bulk of Cicero’s usages (34) are in the Verrine Orations (13) and the Pro caelio (9); the rest are found in six other works.3 Cicero always uses the term in his orations to disparage the subject he is attacking , but only in the Verrine Orations and the Pro caelio does he make sustained references to specific individuals to build an argument of larger significance.4 The Prosecution of Verres In 70 BCE Cicero was approached by prominent citizens of Sicily to bring a prosecution before the quaestio de pecuniis repetundis, the court for monetary restitution, against Gaius Verres, who had served as governor of Sicily for the previous three years. The charge was gross extortion of the provincials during Verres’s years of absolute power in the province, and Cicero embraced the opportunity to enhance his relationship with an important group of provincials whose affection he had originally earned while serving as quaestor in western Sicily in 75. The case also gave Cicero a critical opportunity to test his forensic skills against those of the most prominent advocate of his day, Quintus Hortensius , and, in the event, best him at his own game and replace him as the foremost forensic orator in Rome for the next two decades. Scholars have usually attributed Cicero’s hyperbole and vehemence in the Verres prosecution solely to the threat that the criminal courts, in the hands of senatorial juries since the reforms of Sulla in 80 BCE, would be returned to the partial control of the equites if the senators would not convict one of their own so evidently guilty.5 Gruen, however, has argued persuasively that the lex Aurelia iudiciaria (which did restore partial control of the courts to the equites) promulgated by the praetor Cotta in 70 BCE shortly after the conclusion of the Verres trial (Broughton 1952, 127) was clearly under consideration as early as the year before: Pompey 178 marsha mccoy mentioned it at his contio while consul-elect in 71.6 In fact, the lex Aurelia was not opposed, and perhaps was even supported, by the Sullan senate. So Gruen argues that the prosecution of Verres probably had minimal impact on the passage of the law a month after the trial (1974, 28–46). Gruen’s view therefore supports my argument that Cicero’s excessive rhetoric about Verres’s misbehavior and its reflection on...