Cloelia: Puella Rōmāna
Content warning: This LNDb entry discusses a novella that contains depictions of sexual assault.
Cloelia: Puella Rōmāna (Cloelia: A Roman Girl) is a sheltered-vocabulary Latin novella published by Ellie Arnold in 2016. It tells the story of Cloelia, a Roman girl who witnesses the fall of the Roman monarchy and the establishment of the Republic, and is inspired to heroic deeds of her own. It is notable for its sensitive discussion of the Roman values surrounding womanhood and pudīcitia in the context of numerous stories within the narrative, most notably the rape and suicide of Lucretia. It also features a high number of T-units per sentence, meaning that many sentences include multiple independent clauses joined together by conjunctions such as et, sed, and neque.
Available as a free PDF from the author's website, or from Amazon.
Reading level
The author’s introduction states that this novella is intended for students in their second or third year of study. Comprehensible Antiquity puts this novella at Level F.
Diverse & Multicultural Identities
For information about how representation of multicultural and diverse identities is analyzed in LNDb, see here.Parallel cultures
No depictions identified.Gender
Features one cis female main character (Cloelia). Features no cis male main characters or transgender main characters. It is noteworthy that this novella directly addresses the gender roles of Roman society and the expectations of Roman women and men.Sexual identity
Features depictions of heterosexual identity: Cloelia has a mother and father, and a group of men brag about their wives.SES/class
Cloelia identifies herself and her friend Iunia as being fīliae maximōrum Rōmānōrum, implying that they are upper-class.Religion
Features a depiction of Roman religion: a major theme is the idea of vows (vōta), and Cloelia is often reminded that it is an affront to the gods (nefās) to break a vow.Disability
No depictions identified.Language Statistics
Vocabulary
Word List
A complete word list for Cloelia: Puella Rōmāna can be found here.
Glosses
This novella contains glosses in the form of sidenotes with English translations.
Of the 216 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 52 of them (24.1%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 3469 total words in the text, 197 of them (5.7&) are glossed.
Of the 216 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 52 of them (24.1%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 3469 total words in the text, 197 of them (5.7&) are glossed.
Glossary
This novella contains a Latin-English glossary, with every form of each word listed separately. The glossary is complete.
Syntax
Summary
Genre & Sources
This novella is in the genre of historical (Classical), and has several stories within the story from Classical history and mythology..
It is an adaptation of the story of Cloelia, found in Livy 2.13. It contains a number of other stories from Livy, including the rape and suicide of Lucretia (1.57–58), Horatius at the bridge (2.10–11), and Mucius Scaevola (2.12). Also found in the novella are the stories of Camilla from the Aeneid (11.532–845) and of Kallisto from Ovid's Metamorphoses (2.405–531).
It is an adaptation of the story of Cloelia, found in Livy 2.13. It contains a number of other stories from Livy, including the rape and suicide of Lucretia (1.57–58), Horatius at the bridge (2.10–11), and Mucius Scaevola (2.12). Also found in the novella are the stories of Camilla from the Aeneid (11.532–845) and of Kallisto from Ovid's Metamorphoses (2.405–531).
CONTAINS SPOILERS
Cloelia is a ten-year-old Roman girl who is not content to stay at home and make clothes, as Roman women are expected to do. She is told the story of Camilla, a warrior woman who did not conform to the usual notions of Roman femininity, but who ultimately died when she did not honor her vow to Diana. One day, her father comes home and explains that Lucretia, a friend of the family, has been raped by the son of the king and committed suicide. Cloelia is confused about why she would kill herself when she had done nothing wrong. Her mother explains that it was because she felt her vow of pudīcitia (chastity) had been broken, and tells the story of Kallisto as another example of a woman who was raped and then punished even though she was blameless. The Romans overthrow the monarchy as a result of this cruelty to Lucretia, and the king is exiled. Soon, the Etruscans, led by king Porsenna, attack. A Roman named Mucius infiltrates the Etruscan camp, intending to kill Porsenna, but kills a scribe by mistake. Porsenna prepares to burn Mucius alive, but Mucius willingly puts his hand in the fire as a sign of his fearlessness and his devotion to Rome. Porsenna, impressed, lets Mucius go free, and agrees to a truce if ten boys and ten girls are sent to him as hostages. Cloelia is one of these girls. She tries to lift the spirits of the other girls by telling them of Horatius, who defended Rome singlehandedly from an attacking army. That night, Cloelia leads the girls out of the fort and swims with them across the Tiber back to Rome. She is safe at home, but by escaping, Cloelia unknowingly broke the conditions of the truce, and she has to return to Porsenna. The king tells her that he is impressed, and that she can either go home free, or stay and let the ten boys go free. Cloelia chooses to stay as a captive and let the ten boys go free, thus sacrificing herself for Rome.
First 100 Words
Underlined words are glossed in the text.nōmen mihi est Cloelia. puella parva Rōmāna sum. puella decem annōrum sum. decem annōs Rōmae cum patre et mātre habitāvī. decem annōs semper laeta eram. decem annōs tūta et numquam in perīculō eram.
nunc in magnō perīculō sum.
timeō, sed tamen puella Rōmāna sum. cīvis Rōmāna sum. nōn lacrimō. cīvēs Rōmānī fortēs sunt. cīvēs Rōmānī in perīculō nōn timent, sed pugnant. cīvēs Rōmānī audācēs sunt. cīvēs Rōmānī in perīculō nōn lacrimant, sed rēs audacissimās gerunt. ego quoque fortis sum. ego quoque audāx sum. nōn lacrimābō. pugnābō.
in castrīs hostium sum. pater et māter in castrīs nōn sunt. pater et māter in urbe sunt. …
Supplementary Materials
The author’s website contains a link to a folder of free teacher-made resources for Cloelia.Presentation
| Illustrations? | no |
| Illustrator | N/A |
| Macrons? | yes |
| Font | Georgia, 14 pt |
| Pages of story | 38 |
| Total pages | 62 |
| Chapters | 18 |
Key Information
| Publication date | June 17, 2016 |
| Publisher | Independently published |
| ISBN | 1533624727 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1533624727 |
