Cloelia

The historian Livy tells us that Cloelia was offered as one of many hostages to secure peace between the Romans and the Etruscans around 500 BCE, but led a daring escape from the Etruscan camp back to the city of Rome. Despite her success, the Etruscan king demanded her return lest the peace treaty be nullified. Cloelia agreed and willingly returned herself to the enemy camp, only to be released by the king in recognition of her courage (virtūs). That courage was so important to the Romans’ sense of civic virtue that her story was recounted in the works of two other historians: Valerius Maximus and Polyaenus. The version of the myth presented in this chapter thus renders a single narrative that combines plot elements from all three sources while retaining the Roman emphasis on Cloelia’s virtūs. The Latin text enables readers to review conditional statements.