The via Appia from Rome to Capua.

The aqua Appia, Rome’s first aqueduct, was built during Caecus’ censorship in 312 B.C.

Caecus’ speech on this occasion, still extant in Cicero’s day, convinced the Senate to refuse a treaty proposed by the Greek king Pyrrhus after the Roman defeat at Heraclea in 280 B.C.

In 143 B.C. the consul Appius Claudius Pulcher foiled attempts to deny him a triumph by having his daughter, a priestess of Vesta, ride in the chariot beside him. The story is in Valerius Maximus 5.4.6.

In 204 B.C., she helped bring the image of Cybele, the Great Mother Goddess of Asia, to Rome and proved her virtue in the process. Livy 29.14 tells the story.

Consul in 60 B.C., he died suddenly in 59. Some suspected poisoning since he was a political opponent of Clodia’s brother, Cicero’s enemy Clodius.

The charges against Caelius included soliciting gold from Clodia in order to finance a murder for hire and, after that plot had failed, an attempt to cover it up by poisoning her.

The charges against Caelius included soliciting gold from Clodia in order to finance a murder for hire and, after that plot had failed, an attempt to cover it up by poisoning her.

“Caecus” means “blind”.

Roman men in archaic times wore full beards. By the first century, they were generally clean-shaven, although the ‘smart set’ affected a small beard. Cicero contrasts the unkempt look of Clodia’s ancestors with the raciness of her contemporaries.