The gens Cloelia was an ancient Roman family which traced its origins to the legendary heroine Cloelia. According to myth, around 508 BCE Cloelia famously escaped from Etruscan king Lars Porsenna by swimming across the Tiber River while leading other hostages to safety, an act of bravery that earned her an equestrian statue on the Via Sacra and gave the family enduring prestige. Despite this illustrious founding narrative, the Cloelii never achieved the prominence of Rome's greatest houses, remaining instead a respectable plebeian family that produced various magistrates and moneyers like Titus Cloelius in 128 BCE throughout the Republican period. The Cloelii represented the solid middle rank of Republican aristocracy rather than the dominant families who monopolized consulships and military commands, and consequently are less well-documented in the historical sources than their more powerful contemporaries.