Like many other women of the Roman elite, Clodia was very well-educated in Greek and philosophy, with a special talent for writing poetry.

[2] Her life, which was characterized by perpetual scandal, is immortalized in the writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero and, it is generally believed, in the poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus.

This was an established, aristocratic family whose history stretched back into the legends of Ancient Rome and who were active in the political construct of the city serving as consuls and senators onwards from the third century BC.

Cicero accused Clodia of being a seducer and a drunkard in Rome and in Baiae, and alluded to the persistent rumors of an incestuous relationship with Clodius.

Cicero stated that he "would [attack Caelius' accusers] still more vigorously, if I had not a quarrel with that woman's [Clodia's] husband—brother, I meant to say; I am always making this mistake.

At present I will proceed with moderation ... for I have never thought it my duty to engage in quarrels with any woman, especially with one whom all men have always considered everybody's friend rather than anyone's enemy.

[11] The poet Catullus wrote several love poems about a frequently unfaithful woman he called Lesbia, identified in the mid-second century AD by the writer Apuleius (Apologia 10) as a "Clodia".

In modern times, the resulting identification of Lesbia with Clodia Metelli, based largely on her portrayal by Cicero, is usually treated as accepted fact, despite occasional challenges.