A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

MESSALLINA./ MESSALLINA. 1053
repeatedannually instead of at intervals of five or derates; the emperor was her instrument and hler,
ten years (Tac.: Ann. i. 8, iii. 2; Fasti.) dupe; the most illustrious families of Rome were
13. M. VALERIUS MESSALLA, great-grandson polluted by her favour, or sacrificed to her cupidity
of M. Valerius' Messalla Corvinus (No. 8), was or hate, and the absence of virtue was not conNero's colleague in the consulship A. D. 58.. His cealed by a lingering sense of shame or even by a
immediate predecessors had squandered the wealth specious veil of decorum. Among her most emiof his ancestors; and Messalla, who had been con- nent victims were the two Julias, one the daughter
tent with honourable poverty, received from the of Germanicus [JUL'A, No. 8],. the other the
treasury an allowance to. enable him to meet the daughter of Drusus, the son of Tiberius.[JULIA,
expences.of the consulship. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 34;. No. 9], whom she offered up, the former to her
comp.. Suet. Arer. 10.) jealousy, the latter to her pride; C. Appins
14. L. VIPSTANUS MESSALLA, was legionary Silanus, who had rejected her advances and:
tribune in Vespasian's army, A. D. 70. He rescued spurned her favourite Narcissus; Justuis Catle legatus Aponius Saturninus from the fury of tonius, whose impeachment of herself she antithe soldiers' who suspected him of corresponding cipated by accusing him [CATONIUS JUSTUS];
with the Vitellian party. Messalla was brother of M. Vinicius, who had married a daughter of
Aquilius Regulus, the notorious delator in Domi- Germanicus [JULIA, No. 8], and whose illustian's reign (Plin. Ep. i. 5). He is one of Tacitus' trious:birth and affinity to Claudius awakened her
authorities for the history of the civil wars after fears; and Valerius Asiaticus, whose, mistress:
Galba's death, and a principal interlocutor in the Poppaea she envied, and whose estates she coveted.
dialogue De Oratoribus, ascribed to Tacitus. (Tac. The conspiracy of Annius Vinicianus and Camillus
list. iii. 9, 11, 18, 25, 28, iv. 42, Dialog. de Scribonianus in A. D. 42, afforded Messallina the
Qrat. 15-25.) [W. B. D.] means of satiating her thirst for gold, vengeance,
MESSALLA, SI'LIUS, was consul suffectus'and intrigue. Claudins was timid, and timidity
from the 1st of May, A. D. 193, and was the person made him cruel. Slaves were encouraged to inwho formally announced to the senate the deposi- form against their masters; members of the noblest
tion of Didius Julianus and the elevation of Sep- houses were subjected to the ignominy of torture
timius Severus. He is apparently the Messalla who and a public execution; their heads were exposed
stands in the Fasti as consul for A. D. 214, and who in the forum; their bodies were flung down the
subsequently (A. D. 218) fell a sacrifice to the steps of the Capitol; the prisons were filled with
iealous tyranny of Elagabalus.. (Dion Cass. lxxiii. a crowd of both sexes;,even strangers were not
17, lxxix. 5.) [W. R.] secure from her suspicions or solicitations; and theMESSALLI'NA STATI'LIA, granddaughter only refuge from her love or hate was the surrenof T. Statilius Taurus, cos. A. D. 1 ]1, was the third der of an estate or a province, an office or a purse,,
wife of the emperor Nero, who married her in A. D. to herself or her satellites. The rights of citizen66. She had previously espoused Atticus Vestinus, ship were sold by Messallina and the freedmen
cos. in that year, whom Nero put to death without with shameless indifference to any purchaser, and
accusation or trial, merely that he might marry, it was currently said that the Roman civitas might
Messallina. After Nero's death Otho, had he been be purchased for two cracked drinking cups. Nor
successful against Vitellius, purposed to have mar- was the ambition of Messallina inferior to her other
ried her,. and in the letters he sent to his friends passions. She disposed of legions and provinces
before he destroyed himself, were some addressed without consulting either Claudius or the senate;
to Messallina. (Tac. Ann. xv. 68; Suet. Ner. 35, she corrupted or intimidated the judicial tribunals;
Oth. 10.) There are only Greek coins of this lier creatures filled the lowest as well as the highest
empress'.. [W. B.- D.] public offices; and their incompetency' for the posts
MESSALLFINA, VALE'RIA, daughter of M. they had bought led in A. D. 43 to a scarcity and:
Valerius Messalla Barbatus and of Domitia Lepida, tumult. The charms, the arts, or the threats of
was the third wife of the emperor Claudius I. She Messallina were so potent with'the stupid Claudius
married Claudius, to whom she was previously re- that he thought her worthy of the honours which
lated, before his accession to the empire. Her Livia, the wife of Augustus, had enjoyed; lie
character is drawn in the darkest colours by the alone was ignorant of her infidelities, and somealmost contemporary pencils of Tacitus and the times even the unconscious minister of her pleaelder Pliny, by the satirist Juvenal, who makes sures. At his triumph for the campaign in Britain
her the exemplar of female profligacy, and by the (A. D. 44), Messallina followed his chariot in a carhistorian Dion Cassius, who wrote long after any pentum or covered carriage (comp. Dion Cass. lx.
motive remained for exaggerating he'r crimes. We 33; Tac. Ann. xii. 42; Suet. Claud. 17)-a pri.
must accept their evidence; but we may remember vilege requiring a special grant front the senate.
that in the' reign of Nero even Messallina's vices The adulteress received the title of Augusta and
may have received a deeper tinge from malignity the right of precedence-jus consessus-at all asand fear; that it was the interest of Agrippina semblies; her lover, Sabinus, once praefect of
[AGRIPPINA, No. 2], her successor in the imperial Gaul, but for his crimes degraded to a gladiator,
bed, to blacken her reputation, and that the fears was, at her request, reprieved from death in the
of her confederates may have led them to ascribe arena; and the emperor caused a serious riot at.
their common guilt to their victim alone. That the Rome. by withholding the popular pantomime
reign of Claudius owed some of its worst features Mnester from the stage while Messallina detained
to the influence of his wives and freedmen is be- him in the palace. Messallina was safe so long as
veond doubt; and it is equally certain that Messal- the freedmen felt themselves secure; but when her
iina was faithless as a wife, and implacable where malice or her rashness endangered her accomplices,
her fears were aroused, or her passions or avarice her doom was inevitable. She had procured the
were: to be gratified. The freedmen of Claudius, death of Polybius, and Narcissus perceived the
especially Polybius and Narcissus, were her confe- frail tenure of his own station and life. The in