Bona Dea, a title that means 'good goddess', honored Roman goddesses of fruitfulness on May 1. The Bona Dea festival was for women-only. Publius Clodius Pulcher (brother of Catullus' "Lesbia") attended the Bona Dea festival in disguise. As a result Clodius became the enemy of Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Bona dea means god goddess and refers to Roman festivals in her honor celebrated only by women.
On May 1 the Bona Dea festival was one of the celebrations in Rome.
Pulius Clodius Pulcher was an instigator and as unscrupulous as he was good-looking. These qualities and the missing details of his murder make him a perfect character in ancient historical fiction and murder mysteries.
Gordianus the Finder gets embroiled in later Republican Roman politics, confronting many of the leading political and luterary figures of the time, including Cicero, Crassus, Pompey, and Catiline.