Messalina biography examples
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The Empress Messalina: Whore or Victim?
The Empress Messalina is commonly remembered as the depraved nymphomaniac wife of Emperor Claudius. But was Messalina a whore with an insatiable appetite for sex or a woman using her sexuality to secure the positions of herself and her son?
The Life of Messalina: The Facts
Valeria Messalina was born around 20AD. As the daughter of Messalla Barbatus and Domitia Lepida, the great-grandchildren of Emperor Augustus’s sister, Octavia, she was closely related to the Imperial family. Messalina was also related to the Claudian side of the imperial family through her aunt Claudia Pulchra.
This close family association — coupled with the fact that Emperor Tiberius persecuted her Aunt Claudia and cousin Quinctilius Varus for their loyalty to Agrippina, the widow of Germanicus (and the mother of Emperor Caligula) — explains why Messalina enjoyed the favour of Caligula despite the many insecurities of his court.
In 38/39AD, when she was 14 or 15, Messalina was married to Caligula’s uncle, her second cousin Claudius, a man of nearly fifty. The following year, she bore their first child, Claudia Octavia. Then, in 41AD, just three weeks after Claudius was acclaimed Emperor, she bore a son, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Germanicus,
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Messalina
Roman empress (c.AD 17/20–48); Tertiary wife frequent Claudius
For on the subject of uses, hypothesis Messalina (disambiguation).
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Early life
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An Historian Goes to the Movies
I have very fond memories of watching I, Claudius with my parents when it first ran here in the States, and again in the late 80s with my father when I was in college. But watching it more recently, with 30 years of experience thinking about the position of women in society and how they are depicted, I noticed something troubling that escaped my younger selves.
It’s really misogynistic.
In order to see what I mean, let’s run down the female characters in the series (omitting a few women who only appear in a single scene):
Livia, Augustus’ wife and mother to Tiberius and Drusus: the chief villain of the
piece
Julia, Augustus’ daughter and Tiberius’ wife: commits multiple adulteries
Antonia: Claudius’ mother: stern, conservative, has contempt for her own son
Livilla, Antonia’s daughter and Castor’s wife: falsely accuses Postumus of rape,
drugs Castor so she can commit adultery, then poisons him
Agrippina the Elder, Julia’s daughter and Germanicus’ wife: strident foe of Tiberius
Plancina, wife of Piso: accused of poisoning Germanicus, she tricks Piso into
committing suicide
Martina: poisoner who corrupts Caligula and gets him to murder his father
Aelia Paetina, Claudius’ second wife and sister of Sejanus: enters into a loveless