Messalina facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Valeria Messalina |
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Statue of Messalina holding her son Britannicus, at the Louvre, ca 45 CE
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| Roman empress | |
| Tenure | 24 January 41 – 48 |
| Born | 25 January AD 17 or 20 Rome, Italy |
| Died | 48 (aged 28 or 31) Gardens of Lucullus, Rome, Italy |
| Spouse | Claudius |
| Issue | Claudia Octavia Britannicus |
| Father | Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus |
| Mother | Domitia Lepida |
Valeria Messalina ( c. 17/20–48) was the third wife of Roman emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of Emperor Nero, a second cousin of Emperor Caligula, and a great-grandniece of Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman, she allegedly conspired against her husband and was executed on the discovery of the plot.
Early life
Messalina was the daughter of Domitia Lepida and her first cousin Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus.
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. When the Emperor Caligula was murdered in 41, the Praetorian Guard proclaimed Claudius the new emperor and Messalina became empress.
Messalina's history
After her accession to power, Messalina enters history with a reputation as ruthless, while Claudius is painted as easily led by her.
The accusations against Messalina center largely on her treatment of other members of the imperial family and her treatment of members of the senatorial order.
In the final two years of her life, she intensified her attacks on her husband's only surviving niece, Agrippina the Younger, and Agrippina's young son Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (the later Emperor Nero). The public sympathized with Agrippina, who had twice been exiled and was the only surviving daughter of Germanicus after Messalina secured the execution of Julia Livilla.
According to Suetonius, Messalina realized early on that the young Nero could be a potential rival to her own son, who was three years younger. He repeated a tale that Messalina 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. In the Secular Games of 48, Nero won greater applause from the crowd than did Messalina's own son Britannicus, something which scholars have speculated led Messalina to plot to destroy Nero and his mother once and for all.
Downfall
In 48 AD, Claudius went to Ostia to visit the new harbor he was constructing and was informed while there that Messalina had gone so far as to marry Senator Gaius Silius in Rome. It was only when Messalina held a costly wedding banquet in Claudius' absence that the freedman Narcissus decided to inform him. The exact motivations for Messalina's actions are unknown – it has been interpreted as a move to overthrow Claudius and install Silius as Emperor, with Silius adopting Britannicus and thereby ensuring her son's future accession. Other historians have speculated that Silius convinced Messalina that Claudius' overthrow was inevitable, and her best hopes of survival lay in a union with him.
Claudius rushed back to Rome, where he was met by Messalina on the road with their children. Despite the mounting evidence against her, Claudius's feelings were softening and he asked to see her in the morning for a private interview. 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 honorable option of taking her own life. Unable to do so, she was killed by one of the guards.
