Cloelia was an unmarried girl who was one of many taken hostage by the Etruscan army of the king Porsena. One night, Cloelia evaded her guards and freed a number of the girl hostages. She led them to swim across the Tiber river back to Rome under a hail of arrows and spears. When Porsena heard what happened, he demanded that if Rome wanted peace, they would need to return Cloelia to him as a prisoner. To save her city, Cloelia willingly returned to the enemy camp, where even Porsena praised her bravery. The Romans honored her by building a statue of her on horseback along the Sacred Way, an unheard of honor for a woman.
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