The name of Messalina has remained the most reviled attribute of immorality and indecency, of unbridled lust and sordid prostitution.
Roman empress (c.AD 17/20–48); 3rd wife of Claudius
The third wife of Emperor Claudius, executed at roughly thirty for allegedly plotting against him — but remembered less for the conspiracy than for a reputation for sexual excess that may say more about Roman political smear campaigns than historical fact.
Valeria Messalina was born around 17 or 20 AD into the inner circle of imperial Rome: a paternal cousin of Nero, second cousin of Caligula, great-grandniece of Augustus. She married Claudius and became empress, wielding real power in a court that watched her closely. Ancient sources painted her as dangerously promiscuous, though the portrait likely served someone's political advantage. In 48, accused of conspiring against the emperor, she was executed. The charges may have been theatre, but the legend stuck — art and literature have kept the scandalous version alive for two thousand years, lon…
Sourced, dated quotes from Messalina
The name of Messalina has remained the most reviled attribute of immorality and indecency, of unbridled lust and sordid prostitution.
Her whole life was a continuous series of faults, and she disgraced herself with the most shameful and discredited excesses.
More than her beauty, she has left in history the memory of her immorality. This is so famous that her name alone, if I may say so, has become a programme in itself.
When night falls, the sovereign, in disguise, goes to the infamous suburbs of Suburra. There, in the most sordid brothels, she offers herself to porters.
Messalina shows a greed that is matched only by her eroticism and wickedness.
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