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Clodius Pulcher: Caesar’s Willing Puppet The Bona Dea Affair and Its Effect on Cicero and the Fall of the Republic

Clodius Pulcher: Caesar’s Willing Puppet The Bona Dea Affair and Its Effect on Cicero and the Fall of the Republic

By Laʻakea Yoshida

Hohonu: A Journal of Academic Writing, Vol.6 (2008)

Julius Caesar

Introduction: In the 1st century BCE, the Roman Republic was approaching a state of flux. The fall of the Roman Republic was at hand and the birth of the Roman Empire under Augustus was near. Though the Republic began to fall in 48 BCE when Caesar defeated Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus, the civil war was not the beginning of the conflict. It found roots in a rarely discussed religious and political event, the Bona Dea affair. Publius Clodous Pulcher, the patrician at the center of this scandal, became a means to control Caesar’s interests and enemies in the senate during his Gallic campaign. Clodius’ affect on the senate enabled Caesar to continue his path to dictatorship, mostly unrestrained. Clodius became a willing ‘puppet’ to Caesar because of the Bona Dea affair. It was Clodius’ part to political redemption and avenue to voice distain for Cicero, in which Caesar shared a common interest.

Each year in the month of December, the Vestal Virgins gathered at the residence of a prominent senator to perform sacred rituals to the Bona Dea – literally translated it means “Good Goddess”. It ordinarily refers to the deity Fauna who was worshipped in Rome as the goddess of healing and fertility. The services were confined to women only. Men were not allowed to see any part of the rituals, to the extent that male animals were also removed from inside the residence. Other than these sparse facts, our knowledge of the Bona Dea rituals is quite limited. We can acknowledge that they must have been immensely important due to the religious and political status of the individuals who participated in them.

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