Messalina

Messalina was the third wife of the emperor Claudius. Ancient writers accuse her of sexual scandal, prosecutions and a failed political marriage to Gaius Silius, after which she was executed; modern historians treat many details cautiously because the sources are hostile.

Messalina was born in Rome and died in Gardens of Lucullus. Messalina also held the offices or ranks of empress consort. Messalina belonged to the Julio-Claudian dynasty and operated within Ancient Rome.

Hourly History’s Claudius also explores court politics surrounding Messalina and Agrippina and the succession of Nero, balancing Claudius’s reputation for competent government against the hostile portrayal preserved by elite authors. In Robert Graves’ Claudius the God, its central events include the conquest of Britain, the scandals surrounding Messalina, the rise of Agrippina the Younger and the succession struggle that prepares the way for Nero. In Robert Fabbri’s Rome’s Lost Son, at the same time, Claudius’s household politics move toward the fall of Messalina and a new struggle over who will control the emperor.