Clodia ("the Beautiful") Metelli's lineage is comparable to a current British Royal: "By the reckoning of the imperial biographer Suetonius, the patrician Claudii amassed during the lifetime of the Republic a total of twenty-eight consulships, five dictatorships, seven censorships, six triumphs, and two ovations" (Skinner). Wiseman summarizes: " M]ulier nobilis noble-woman] is putting it mildly: This daughter of the patrician Claudii was not merely a member of an ornamental social elite, but at the heart of the ruling class of the Roman Republic."
Clodia is also the object of a...

The Roman poet Catullus is one of the most popular and frequently studied ancient authors. His poems were written just over two thousand years ago during the chaotic but culturally vibrant final decades of the Republic and deal with themes of passion and grief, friendship and enmity, politics, literature and myth. This new translation, the product of a collaborative effort between a classicist and a poet, allows modern readers to experience his poems rather as his ancient Roman audience did. The poems are presented as contemporary and concise with a new energy and pace that both enhance...