Messalina
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Valeria Messalina (PIR1 V 161) , sometimes spelled Messallina (c. 20-48) was a Roman Empress and third wife to Roman Emperor Claudius.
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[edit] Life
[edit] Family
Valeria Messalina was the only daughter of Domitia Lepida and Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus (PIR1 V 88; Suetonius, Vita Claudii, 26.29). Her father (a Roman consul) was the son of Marcus Valerius Messalla Messallinus, a Roman senator and twice consul. His mother was Claudia Marcella Minor. Messalina's mother, Domitia Lepida, was the youngest child and daughter to Antonia Major and the consul Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. Her full blooded brother was Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus (consul 58 AD).
Her grandmothers were half sisters and the nieces to Rome’s first Emperor Caesar Augustus and daughters to Augustus’ elder sister Octavia Minor. Claudia Marcella Minor was the youngest daughter of Octavia Minor from her first marriage to Roman Consul and Senator Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor. Antonia Major was the eldest daughter of Octavia Minor from her second marriage to Roman Triumvir Mark Antony.
Her father died in 20/21. Lepida later remarried to Faustus Cornelius Sulla Lucullus III, to whom she bore a son, Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix. This younger half-brother of Messalina was married in 47 to Claudius' elder daughter, Claudia Antonia.
[edit] Marriage to Claudius
Around 38, she married her second cousin Claudius; there was a large age gap between them as he was about 47 or 48 at the time. It is uncertain whether this was her first marriage considering that she may have been 18 or 20, but there is little information about her early life. At the time Messalina was a wealthy, influential figure and a regular in the court of then Emperor Gaius Caligula. Claudius was Gaius Caligula’s paternal uncle and was likewise becoming very influential and popular; he probably needed to marry Messalina to strengthen his ties to the Imperial Court.
They had two children: a daughter Claudia Octavia, who was first wife to future Emperor Nero, and a son called Britannicus.
[edit] Reputation
The unstable Caligula was assassinated on 24 January 41. Claudius was proclaimed Emperor by the Praetorian Guard and thus as Claudius' wife, Messalina became Empress.
Messalina, among the ancient sources, has a very poor reputation. According to Suetonius and Tacitus[citation needed], Messalina was cruel, avaricious and foolish. Many women of her age and station enjoyed festivities and great parties, but the two historians contended that Messalina unwisely combined this zest for meeting people with an insatiable sexual appetite. A widely reported tale was of Messalina's challenge to a notorious Roman prostitute named Scylla of an all-night sex competition. Scylla gave up at dawn when each woman had taken 25 lovers, but Messalina saw no reason to stop copulating until well into the morning. It is said that she was exhausted, but not satisfied.
Juvenal also highly criticises her in his Satire VI:
| “ | Then look at those who rival the Gods, and hear what Claudius endured. As soon as his wife perceived that her husband was asleep, this august harlot was shameless enough to prefer a common mat to the imperial couch. Assuming night-cowl, and attended by a single maid, she issued forth; then, having concealed her raven locks under a light-coloured peruque, she took her place in a brothel reeking with long-used coverlets. Entering an empty cell reserved for herself, she there took her stand, under the feigned name of Lycisca, her nipples bare and gilded, and exposed to view the womb that bore thee, O nobly-born Britannicus! Here she graciously received all comers, asking from each his fee; and when at length the keeper dismissed his girls, she remained to the very last before closing her cell, and with passion still raging hot within her went sorrowfully away. Then exhausted by men but unsatisfied, with soiled cheeks, and begrimed with the smoke of lamps, she took back to the imperial pillow all the odours of the stews. | ” |
Messalina certainly duped Claudius and manipulated him into executing those who displeased or spurned her. She is also recorded as a cheerful player of court politics who sold her influence to Roman nobles and foreign notables. Her name is used as a synonym for others with her supposed vices.
[edit] Death
In 48, Messalina conspired with Gaius Silius to kill Claudius while her husband was in Ostia. She actually went through a public marriage ceremony with Silius (he was already married to an aristocratic woman named Junia Silana). Apparently, she was motivated by the protection the powerful and popular Silius could give her over the weakness of Claudius.
Her plotting was sufficiently promising that many senior officials were swayed to her side. However, the plot was exposed by Narcissus, an advisor to Claudius. Messalina, Silius and a number of others were summarily executed. Messalina was apparently offered the opportunity of suicide but was unable to do it. Claudius was at dinner when he was informed of her death; his response was to ask for more wine.
As a wife, she succeeded Plautia Urgulanilla and Aelia Paetina. She was in turn replaced by Agrippina the Younger.
[edit] Messalina in fiction
Messalina was featured prominently in Robert Graves' novel I, Claudius and its sequel Claudius the God. In keeping with the historical views at the time the novels were written (1934), Messalina is portrayed as a young teenager at the time of her marriage. She is also credited with all the actions mentioned in the ancient sources. This character was played by Sheila White in the 1976 TV adaptation of the 2 books, and was to have been played by Merle Oberon in Josef von Sternberg's 1937 film of I, Claudius.
Besides the adapatation of Graves' work, the character of Messalina has been portrayed many times elsewhere in movies and television films or miniseries. Here are some of the actresses who played Messalina:
- Maria Felix in the 1951 Italian movie Messalina.
- Susan Hayward in the 1954 Biblical Epic Demetrius and the Gladiators.
- Jennifer O'Neill in the 1985 TV series A.D. Anno Domini.
- Sonia Aquino in the 2004 TV movie Imperium: Nero.
The French writer Alfred Jarry also based his novel Messalina (or The Garden of Priapus in Louis Colman's English translation) on the myths surrounding our subject at hand. She is also referred to in his book Le Surmâle (in English the Supermale); these two books are offered as diametrically opposed entities in his 'pataphysical œuvre. The Messalina of these books are highly fictionalized and subject to Jarry's fanciful and extravagant imaginations.
In Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, the Forsaken Mesaana is named after Messalina.
| Preceded by Milonia Caesonia |
Empress of Rome AD 41 - 48 |
Succeeded by Agrippina the Younger |
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- E. Klebs, H. Dessau, P. Von Rohden (ed.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani, 3 vol., Berlin, 1897-1898. (PIR1)
- Levick, Barbara, Claudius. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1990.
- Anthony A. Barrett, Agrippina: Sex, Power and Politics in the Early Roman Empire. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1996.
[edit] Sources
- Tacitus, Annals, XI. 1, 2, 12, 26-38
- Dio Cassius, Roman History, LX. 14-18, 27-31
- Juvenal, Satires 6, 10, 14
- Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Claudius 17, 26, 27, 29, 36, 37, 39; Nero 6; Vitellius 2
- Sextus Aurelius Victor epitome of Book of Caesars, 4
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 10
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XX. 8; The Wars of the Jews II. 12
- Seneca the Younger, Apocolocyntosis divi Claudii; Octavia, 257-261
- Plutarch, Lives
