Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Story 8: The story of Cloelia




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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