Early life Publius, who was the son of Publius Clodius Pulcher and Fulvia, had one full sister
Claudia, and three half-brothers,
Gaius Scribonius Curio,
Marcus Antonius Antyllus and
Iullus Antonius from his mothers later marriages to
Gaius Scribonius Curio (married in 52 BC) and
Mark Antony (married in 49 BC). His father Clodius might have been married to a woman named Pinaria Natta before Fulvia, but there are no children known from this possible match. It is not known exactly when he was born, but he was still referred to as a "boy" (
puer) in 44 BC and he was likely born no earlier than 60 BC. In 59 Publius's father (who was born as a
patrician) was adopted by a man of
plebeian status named
Publius Fonteius and changed the spelling of his own name from
Publius Claudius Pulcher to
Publius Clodius Pulcher. If Publius was born after this he might have been born under the name "Clodius", although it is known that he reverted to the patrician spelling at some point after his father's death. In 52 BC when his father was killed by
Titus Annius Milo and his followers, there were accusations that Milo had also had a slave abduct the boy from his father's villa in
Alba and bring him to see the body of his father and to demand that he allow them to cut up Clodius' body. At his father's funeral he was not considered old enough to deliver a
funeral oration. Around this time he was referred to as a
parvulus which would mean "little child". Publius appears to have been raised by his mother's last husband Mark Antony. As a young man he likely asked for Antony to recall the exiled
Sextus Cloelius (sometimes called "Sextus Clodius") as a favour. Sextus had been a major supporter of his father. His younger sister Claudia married Octavian around 43-41 BC, but when the relations between Octavian and his mother Fulvia broke down about a year later the marriage was broken off. Fulvia died of illness in 40 BC in Greece after traveling with her children following battles with Octavians forces.
Career Valerius Maximus regarded Publius as a lethargic nonentity who only rose to the
Praetorship after 31 BC under the
Second Triumvirs and died young amid scandals of luxurious excess and an obsessive attachment to a common
prostitute. Besides his praetorship he was also a quaestor and a member of the priestly college of the augurs. It is possible that he survived the
Battle of Actium and went over to Octavian's side after the defeat of his step-father Mark Antony, later making a further career under the emperor. An inscription of ownership on an expensive Egyptian alabaster vase once owned by him has survived to attest to his short official career, and includes an unusual triple filiation which confirms the literary evidence to the effect that Clodius' own filiation was: Ap. f. Ap. n. Ap. pron. (son of
Appius cos.79, grandson of
Appius cos.143). ==Family==