Chapter two examines Cloelia, a girl sent as a hostage to the Etruscans to secure a truce. According to legend she courageously escaped, swam the Tiber, and returned to Rome. She is commonly said to display virtus—military valor, or “behavior appropriate to an adult male (vir).” But what does it mean to be a “manly maiden,” a virgo who displays virtus? What norms might she provide for persons of various sexes and ages? Addressing these questions requires nuanced moral reflection. Adding complexity, her courageous escape abrogates the truce and tars the Romans as perfidious. Thus she can serve as a positive or negative exemplum, as the rhetoric of the current argument requires. Finally, an equestrian monument connected with Cloelia seems to make her vividly and immediately “present” to observers—as if they were eyewitnesses to her original performance. Such “timelessness” is a common feature of exemplarity, one which this exemplum particularly thematizes.