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Valeria Messalina (17/20–48) was the third wife of Roman emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of Emperor Nero, a second cousin of Emperor Caligula, and a great-grandniece of Emperor Augustus.
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Messalina shows a greed that is matched only by her eroticism and wickedness. She obtains the death sentence for several large landowners on various pretexts, but in reality for the sole purpose of seizing their property.
When night falls, the sovereign, in disguise, goes to the infamous suburbs of Suburra. There, in the most sordid brothels, she offers herself to porters. If her august husband, Emperor Claudius, has taken it into his head to attend a torture session at the same time, the imperial palace of the Caesars will be empty: the emperor is in prison, the empress in the brothel.
The name of Messalina has remained the most reviled attribute of immorality and indecency, of unbridled lust and sordid prostitution. This woman, related to the progeny of the Caesars and married to an emperor, surpassed the sad fame of Augustus' two Julias and brought to the imperial palace, along with the most vile vice, the rage of blood and robbery.
Messalina had received from nature such a violent inclination towards debauchery that it was very difficult for her to confine herself within the legitimate boundaries of marriage, which were too narrow for a heart inflamed by a thousand vices. She was quite beautiful and had enough credit to attract lovers, and too little virtue to keep them waiting for long.