Messalina, a woman devoted to the Dionysian pleasure that still makes everyone talk about her … discover with us why.
Only the legends have remained of her, which have created a myth between fantasy and reality.
Her follies have cost her not only her life but also her damnatio memoriae, the oblivion, the cancellation of every trace of her as consort of the emperor to any document and monument.
A woman who loved lust and enjoyed with all her body and soul every pleasure of life.
Valeria Messalina lived only 23 years and in such a short time she earned the title of meretrix augusta. She was a dissolute and frivolous woman, nothing else but the expression of her age: seductive, corrupt and bloody.
Her behavior was certainly unprejudiced and inconsistent as the wife of the emperor, but it was not an exception in the Rome of the time.
Messalina was born in one of the patrician families close to the emperor Augustus. At only 15 years old she was already known for her extraordinary beauty and by order of Emperor Caligula she was married to Claudius, who in 41 AD., became emperor. Claudio was known as a cultured, middle-aged man who preferred the frivolity of ancient Rome’s prostitutes to his wife’s beauty.
Messalina after giving him two children, conscious of her beauty, did not want to limit herself to do the life of the classic Roman matron, but for solitude, boredom or simple curiosity she decided to integrate herself into the dangerous and intriguing dynamics of the court.
She organized parties for pleasure and to meet men and it was during these occasions that she met a famous actor of the Ancient Rome, ending up falling in love: it was Mnestere, a man known for his qualities as an actor, as for his raids night. Naturally, Mnestere became his mistress, leading her to the world of sexual unscrupulousness. Thus began the nocturnal adventures of Messalina in the Suburra (the famous infamous district of ancient Rome).
With the name of Licisca, she purposed herself for pure pleasure in the bordello of her city disguised as a prostitute: her breasts covered with gold dust, her lips red and her eyes painted with ashes and antimony. Her sexual appetites were so insatiable that she was not afraid to challenge the most famous prostitute of the time in a competition to those who could have more relationships in a day. And of course, according to the anecdote, Messalina won, counting 25 sexual intercourses in 24 hours.
None of her family members were too scandalized by her conduct. If at court she was now frowned upon, the emperor did not repudiate her and continued to hold her close to him. But there are some women who expected nothing but the umpteenth false step of Messalina to conquer her place alongside Claudio: one of them was Agrippina Minore, the ambitious mother of Nero who hoped that his son would become emperor.
In this climate of intrigue, Messalina continued not to care about the fragility of her situation. She tried to stun her libertine life and unprejudiced until she fell madly in love with the most beautiful young man of the Roman aristocracy: Gaius Silio.
This beautiful woman did everything to capture his heart: she courted him, tried in every way to conquer him, and to marry him came to plot against the emperor himself.
I wish she’d never done that.
This unscrupulous gesture had a terrible effect: the condemnation of the two lovers. Claudio, in fact, lived in the obsession of a plot against him and as soon as Narciso informed him of his wife’s plans, he succumbed to the fear and took the necessary measures: a tribune will give her death, putting a dagger in her heart.
Before dying, he dedicated these words to the most luxurious, cheeky woman in Ancient Rome: “If your death will be planted by all your lovers, half of Rome will weep.”
Legend told us that the spirit of the lustful Messalina still wanders in Colle Oppio, between the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Her ghost would wander at night in the capital, when the city sleeps. It is said she constantly looks for a new adventure with another man.
Roma Luxury has created for you an experiential tour in which you will live the feelings and emotions of the most characteristic places of Ancient Rome and through an emotional story telling you will experience the story of Messalina admiring the places where she used to spend her time and pleasures.
So be careful and do not turn alone, especially do not leave your men a
