Lesbia

Lesbia was the literary pseudonym used by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 82–52 BC) to refer to his lover.

Lesbia is traditionally identified with Clodia, the wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer and sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher; her conduct and motives are maligned in Cicero's extant speech Pro Caelio, delivered in 56 BC.

Catullus's poem 35 celebrating his poet friend Caecilius of Novum Comum also mentions the devotion of Caecilius' girlfriend, who is herself accorded a remarkable tribute as "girl more learned than Sappho's Muse" (lines 16–17: Sapphica puella / musa doctior).

The 2nd-century AD orator Apuleius of Madaura gave a list of four such identities in court, to defend himself against the charge of hiding names under an alias:[2] Apuleius' information is thought to have come from Suetonius' de poetis, or Suetonius' most important source, a work on late Republican and Augustan period poets by Gaius Julius Hyginus.

[3] Thomas draws parallels between Lesbia and one of Meleager's lovers, Phanion.