The subject is taken from Plutarch's life of the Roman consul Publicola. Publicola, as a pledge of good faith in his suit for peace with the Etruscan king, Lars Porsena, who was encamped in siege on the far side of the Tiber, sent him as hostages ten young men and ten virgins, including Cloelia and his own daughter Valeria. Left unguarded while they bathed, Cloelia led her companions in escape across the Tiber, only to be returned by Publicola to Lars Porsena, who magnanimously rewarded Cloelia for her bravery.

Although it had previously always been regarded as the work of Fontebasso, the present picture was sold in 1988 with a tentative attribution to Francesco Zugno suggested by Mr. James Byam Shaw. Marina Magrini points out that a preparatory drawing in the Prado was published by Mena Marquez, loc. cit., in 1985, and, while noting the present picture's stylistic affinities with the work of Zugno, she accepts the traditional attribution to Fontebasso, suggesting that it may have been a sketch for a larger picture, possibly a fresco