Claudia Quinta

Who is Claudia Quinta?

Claudia Quinta was a Roman matron said to have been instrumental in bringing the goddess Cybele, "Great Mother" of the gods from her shrine in Greek Asia Minor to Rome in 204 BC, during the last years of Rome's Second Punic War against Carthage. The goddess had been brought in response to dire prodigies, a failed harvest and the advice of various oracles. Roman histories and stories describe Claudia Quinta as castissima femina in Rome, chosen along with Scipio Nasica, Rome's optimus vir to welcome the goddess. Gossips had accused Claudia of inchastity; but when the ship that carried the goddess's image up the River Tiber stuck fast on a sandbar, Claudia prayed for the goddess's help, then released and towed the ship single-handed. This miraculous feat proved Claudia's reputation and the goddess's willingness to become Rome's protector. Soon after, Rome had a good harvest, then defeated the Carthaginian leader Hannibal. Accounts of Cybele's arrival and her transformation into Rome's Magna Mater were embellished over time with circumstantial details, and formed part of the goddess's founding festival, Megalesia.