Messalina

Valeria Messalina (c. 17/20–48) was the third wife of the Roman emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of Emperor Nero and a great-grandniece of Emperor Augustus (there was a lot of inbreeding in her family). A powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she was executed for allegedly plotting to murder her husband. Her notorious reputation is now seen as arising from political bias, but it has remained the prevalent image of her into modern times.  

Little is known about Messalina's life prior to her marriage in 38 to Claudius, her first cousin once removed, who was then about 47 years old. Two children were born as a result of their union: a daughter Claudia Octavia (born 39 or 40), a future empress, stepsister and first wife to the emperor Nero; and a son, Britannicus. Claudius became emperor in 41, making Messalina an empress aged around 21.

On becoming empress, Messalina arrives in history as ‘ruthless, predatory and sexually insatiable’, who easily tricked her submissive and oblivious husband. This judgment of Messalina focus largely on three things: her treatment of other members of the imperial family; her treatment of members of the senate; and her unrestrained sexual behaviour. It is claimed that she particularly targeted her husband’s female family members. His niece was executed for adultery (although her lover was only exiled #patriarchy) and another niece was accused by Messalina of immorality and incest, and was also executed. It was implied that because the lover returned to court after Messalina’s death and because the second niece’s children was a rival claimant to the throne that Messalina herself was behind these two executions and that Claudius merely pulled the strings. However, it seems to me that the niece’s lovers’ lenient treatment is more a result of patriarchal privilege than proof of Messalina’s murderous intent, while male emperors have proved just as eager – if not more so – to eliminate political rivals.  

In the final two years of her life, Messalina is said to have intensified her attacks on her husband's only surviving niece, Agrippina the Younger and her young son Lucius (Later emperor Nero). Agrippina had the public’s support, although it is said that Messalina was only stopped persecuting Agrippina because she was distracted by her new lover, Gaius Silius.

It is also claimed that Messalina realized early on that the young Nero could be a potential rival to her own son and thus she sent several assassins into Nero's bedchamber to murder him, but they were frightened off by what they thought was a snake slithering out from under his bed. Like his mother, he appeared more popular with the public than Messalina and her son which is seen as a further motive for her revenge plots.  

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Two very prominent senators met their death on the instigation of Messalina. One was her stepfather, who it is said Messalina was infatuated with herself. In 42, Messalina and an accomplice devised an elaborate ruse, whereby they each informed Claudius that they had had identical dreams during the night portending that her stepfather would murder Claudius. Based on this alone, Claudius had him executed.

The second was a wealthy senator of whom Messalina was jealous because she coveted his lands and hated because he was the lover of her nemesis (whom she had fought with over the affections of another lover). In 46, she convinced Claudius to order his arrest on charges of failing to maintain discipline amongst his soldiers, adultery with Sabina, and for engaging in homosexual acts. Although Claudius was reluctant to condemn him to death, he ultimately did so on the recommendation of Messalina's ally, and Claudius' partner in the consulship for that year, Lucius Vitellius. The murder of Asiaticus, without notifying the senate and without trial, caused great outrage amongst the senators, who blamed both Messalina and Claudius. Despite this, Messalina continued to target Poppaea Sabina until she committed suicide. Thus, again Messalina seems to take the blame for executions which men orchestrated.

The same year, supposedly had an actor poisoned because he refused to sleep with her, and ordered the execution of one of her husband’s secretaries. According to Dio, this murder of one of their own turned the other freedmen, previously her close allies, against Messalina for good.

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In 48 AD, Claudius was informed while away on business that Messalina had actually married her latest lover, Senator Gaius Silius and held a lavish wedding banquet in Rome. Messalina’s motivations for this have been widely debated. One theory is that it is evidence she planned to overthrow Claudius and install Silius as Emperor, with Silius adopting Britannicus and thereby ensuring her son's future accession. Others suggest that Silius persuaded Messalina that Claudius' overthrow was inevitable, and that marrying Silius was the only way she could be protected. Other stated that Messalina hesitated to marry him, but did so because he divorced his own wife for her. Another theory is that Messalina and Silius merely took part in a sham marriage as part of a Bacchic ritual as they were in the midst of celebrating the harvest festival, Vinalia. Whatever the truth, the dominant story became that it was an attempt to overthrow her husband and install her lover as emperor.

Upon hearing the news, Claudius rushed back to Rome, where he was met by Messalina on the road with their children and the leading Vestal Virgin who pleaded with Claudius not to condemn Messalina. He then visited Silius’ estate, where he found various of heirlooms from his family that Messalina had gifted to her lover. When Messalina attempted to gain access to her husband in the palace, she was refused by his servant Narcissus who shouted out a list of her various offences. Despite the mounting evidence against her, Claudius asked to see his wife the following morning. Fearing that he would forgive her, Narcissus, pretending to act on Claudius' instructions, ordered an officer of the Praetorian Guard to execute her. When the troop of guards arrived at the Gardens of Lucullus, where Messalina had taken refuge with her mother, she was given the honourable option of taking her own life. However, she was unable to find the courage, and instead was stabbed by a guard. Upon hearing the news, the Emperor did not react and simply asked for another chalice of wine. The Roman Senate then ordered a damnatio memoriae so that Messalina's name would be removed from all public and private places and all statues of her would be taken down.

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The accusations of sexual depravity against her were probably a smear tactic used by her rivals. One such story is that of her all-night sex competition with a prostitute in Pliny the Elder's Natural History, according to which the competition lasted for 24 hours and Messalina won with a score of 25 partners. Another poet also wrote of her clandestine work in a brothel under the pseudonym “She-Wolf”. This poem gave Messalina her most famous nickname “the imperial whore”.

Forevermore, to call a woman "a Messalina" indicated a devious and sexually voracious personality (see yesterday’s post for an example of this!). The historical figure and her fate were often used in the arts to make a moral point, but there was often as well a voyeuristic fascination with her sexually-liberated behaviour.^. Thus, while Messalina's sin and cruelty is given full emphasis, and even exaggerated in early works, her sexual activities have been treated more sympathetically.

Her notorious reputation was thus painted by historians writing at least 70 years after her death, in a context which was now actively hostile to Messalina’s imperial line. Other scholars such as Cassius Dio – a Greek historian writing 150 years after Messalina’s death -  were noted to have been largely misogynistic and ‘suspicious of women’. Dio was also known to be "free with scandalous gossip," and that "he used 'characteristic anecdote' without exhaustive inquiry into its authenticity”. Therefore, the main “authorities” on Messalina’s life and character cannot be considered reliable witnesses.

One of these, Tacitus, admitted to relaying "what was heard and written by my elders” such as the memoirs of Agrippina the Younger, who had arranged to displace Messalina's children in the imperial succession and was therefore particularly interested in blackening her predecessor's name. Tacitus seems well aware of the impression he is creating when he admits that his account may seem fictional, if not melodramatic. Therefore, scholars now believe that the condemnation of her character was largely the result of a political smear campaign.

 Thus, Messalina is an excellent example of why history really is HIS story.