Background
Valeria Messalina was born on January 25, 17 A. D. , in Rome, Roman Empire (now Italy).
Valeria Messalina was born on January 25, 17 A. D. , in Rome, Roman Empire (now Italy).
The great-granddaughter of Augustus’s sister, Octavia, on both her father’s and mother’s sides, she was married to Claudius before he became emperor (39 or 40). Early sources maintain that Messalina allied herself with Claudius’s freedmen secretaries to dominate the emperor and to gratify her avarice and lust. In 42, Messalina caused Claudius to condemn to death a senator, Appius Silanus, who had slighted her advances. This heightened the tension between the emperor and Senate and prepared the way for a reign of terror in which many senators were executed after they had been denounced by Messalina. When she caused the death of Claudius’s freedman secretary, Polybius, however, the other freedmen turned against her. The correspondence secretary, Narcissus, managed to have her put to death in 48 A. D. by convincing Claudius that she and her lover, the consul designate Gaius Silius, had gone through a public wedding ceremony and were plotting to seize power.
Valeria Messalina married Claudius, two children were born as a result of their union.
