Messalina

A Story of Empire, Slander and Adultery

By: Honor Cargill-Martin

Narrated by: Antonia Beamish

This is the story of Messalina – third wife of Emperor Claudius and one of the most notorious women to have inhabited the Roman world.

The scandalous image of the Empress Messalina as a ruthless and sexually insatiable schemer, derived from the work of Roman historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius, has taken deep root in the Western imagination. The stories they told about her included nightly visits to a brothel and a twenty-four-hour sex competition with a prostitute. Tales like these have defined the empress's legacy, but her real story is much more complex.

In her new life of Messalina, the classicist Honor Cargill-Martin reappraises one of the most slandered and underestimated female figures of ancient history. Looking beyond the salacious anecdotes, she finds a woman battling to assert her position in the overwhelmingly male world of imperial Roman politics – and succeeding. Intelligent, passionate, and ruthless when she needed to be, Messalina's story encapsulates the cut-throat political manoeuvring and unimaginable luxury of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in its heyday.

Cargill-Martin sets out not to 'salvage' Messalina's reputation, but to look at her life in the context of her time. Above all, she seeks to reclaim the humanity of a life story previously circumscribed by currents of high politics and patriarchy.©2023 Honor Cargill-Martin (P)2023 Head of Zeus

One of the best history books I’ve read or listened in a long time.

This is one of the best history books I’ve read in a long time, very well researched.

Fantastic Deep Dive

Honor Cargill-Martin delivers a brilliantly detailed and insightful analysis of Messalina’s life and career as Empress, exploring her relationships, decisions, and political influence with depth rarely afforded to her in ancient sources. While Tacitus, Suetonius, Cassius Dio, and others often reduce her to a caricature—depicting her as nothing more than a reckless seductress or an irrational schemer—Cargill-Martin cuts through the sensationalism to offer a nuanced, well-reasoned interpretation of Messalina’s actions. She carefully reconstructs the logic behind Messalina’s choices, including the enigmatic “marriage coup,” making sense of events that have long been dismissed as inexplicable. A must-read for anyone seeking a deeper, more contextualized understanding of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the Claudian era.

Interesting read!

Definitely worth the read, this was fascinating and gave a really well done overview and explanation of the history and lore behind Messalina.

Excellent

An excellent book that describes not only Messalina's life but also the life of the Romans in that period. Only the last part, which was dedicated to the appearance of Messalina in art, seemed to me a little too long.

excellent narration, worthy subject

This book was fascinating, horrifying, illuminating. A detailed life of Messalina and many others, the bloody courts of Imperial Rome...