Bona Dea scandal
event · 2 works · 2 mentions · 2 anchored passages
Bona Dea affair · Clodius's sacrilege · the mysterious rite
in the texts
Caesar
The scandal in which Clodius infiltrated the women-only rites of the Bona Dea, was discovered, tried, and acquitted.
Caesar divorced Pompeia at once, but when he was summoned to testify at the trial, he said he knew nothing about the matters with which Clodius was charged.
Then at once, and in the night, they went off and told the matter to their husbands, and when day came a report spread through the city that Clodius had committed sacrilege and owed satisfaction, not only to those whom he had insulted, but also to the city and to the gods.
Accordingly, one of the tribunes of the people indicted Clodius for sacrilege, and the most influential senators leagued themselves together and bore witness against him that, among other shocking abominations, he had committed adultery with his sister, who was the wife of Lucullus.
Cicero
The scandal in which Clodius, disguised as a woman, intruded upon the secret women's religious rite at Caesar's house, leading to Caesar's divorce and a sacrilege trial.
for the women of Rome were celebrating in Caesar’s house that mysterious rite which men were not allowed to witness, and no man was there;
The affair having become noised abroad, Caesar divorced Pompeia and had an action for sacrilege brought against Clodius.
but being still a beardless youth Clodius hoped without being noticed to slip through to Pompeia along with the women.