A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. ClaudiaQuinta [CLAUDIUS, Stemma, No. 18], probably the sister of App. Claudius Pulcher [CLAUDIUS, No. 17], and grand-daughter of App. Claudius Caecus. Her fame is connected with the story of the transportation of the image of Cybele from Pessinus to Rome. The vessel conveying the image had stuck fast in a shallow at the mouth of the Tiber. The soothsayers announced that only a chaste woman could move it. Claudia, who had been accused of incontinency, stepped forward from among the matrons who had accompanied Scipio to Ostia to receive the image, and after calling upon the goddess to vindicate her innocence, took hold of the rope, and the vessel forthwith followed her. A statue was erected to her in the vestibule of the temple of the goddess. (Liv. 29.14; Ov.Fasti, 4.305, &c.; Cic. de Harusp. Resp. 13; V. Max. 1.8.11; Plin. Nat. 7.35.)