STATUA CLOELIAE
an equestrian statue of Cloelia, the Roman hostage,
who escaped from Lars Porsenna by swimming the Tiber, was sent back,
and then freed by the Etruscan king with marked honours for her bravery
(
RE iv. 110). There are some variants in the tradition of this statue;
it was said to have been erected by the state (
Liv. ii. 13; Serv.
Aen. viii.
646); by the other hostages (Piso ap. Plin.
NH xxxiv. 28-29); by their
parents (
Dionys. v. 35); and to have stood in summa sacra via (Liv.
loc. cit.);
ἐπὶ τῆς ἱερᾶς ὁδοῦ(Dionys. loc. cit.; cf. Plut. Poplic. 19;
de mul. virt. 14);
in sacra via (Serv. loc. cit.);
contra Iovis Statoris
aedem in vestibule Superbi domus (Plin. loc. cit.) ;
in foro (de vir. ill. 13).
It probably did stand in summa sacra via, near the temple of Jupiter
Stator. According to Dionysius (loc. cit.) the statue had disappeared
in his time, and was supposed to have been burned. The language of
Livy and Plutarch agrees with this, but Seneca (de consol. 16) and Servius
state explicitly that it was standing in the first and fourth centuries.
It seems impossible to reconcile these statements without supposing that
the old statue had been restored, or a new one erected, early in the first
century (Detlefsen, de arte Rom.
Antiq. ii. 12; see also HJ 23;
Gilb.
i. 226).
