Similar to today's celebrities, Clodia was able to network with powerful people because she too was a formidable character. Clodia was associated with the dictator L. Cornelius Sulla, the great orator Hortensius, and the leading conservative spokesman Cato the Younger (Skinner, 2010). Clodia's esteemed position in society allowed her to marry her cousin. Clodia's husband, who was called Quintus Metellus Celer, was a Roman tribune, brother-in-law of Pompey the Great and tied to Asia (Badian, 2014). Due to her husband's involvement in Roman politics, Clodia was able to acquire a wider range of political contacts. Clodia was also able to influence her husband's political choices thanks to her energetic character. Clodia was also given more economic freedoms once she married instead of still being under her father's control. Clodia, despite being despised, used her wealth for her own purposes instead of considering the interests of her male relatives. When Metellus' husband died in 59 BC under mysterious circumstances, Clodia was left a widow with enormous wealth (Kamil, 2014). Being a widow also gave Clodia more power to lead the kind of life she saw fit, and Clodia subsequently never remarried. Clodia helped her brother Clodius in his political career. Clodia's birth name was Claudia, but she changed it when her brother changed his