The rites in question were annually held, now in the house of this matron and then of that, and during the occasion the very master of the house was excluded from his own premises.

They were now being performed under the auspices of Pompeia, the wife of Julius Caesar, the daughter of one Quintus Pompeius, and it was alleged that Clodius came among the women worshippers for the sake of carrying on an intrigue with Caesar's wife.
This was highly improbable, as Mr.Forsyth has pointed out to us, and the idea was possibly used simply as an excuse to Caesar for divorcing a wife of whom he was weary.

At any rate, when the scandal got abroad, he did divorce Pompeia, alleging that it did not suit Caesar to have his wife suspected.
[Sidenote: B.C.61, aetat.

46.] The story became known through the city, and early in January Cicero wrote to Atticus, telling him the facts: "You have probably heard that Publius Clodius, the son of Appius, has been taken dressed in a woman's clothes in the house of Caius Caesar, where sacrifice was being made for the people, and that he escaped by the aid of a female slave.

You will be sorry to hear that it has given rise to a great scandal."[222] A few days afterward Cicero speaks of it again to Atticus at greater length, and we learn that the matter had been taken up by the magistrates with the view of punishing Clodius.