As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Historical person
20–48
Messalina was the third wife of the emperor Claudius. Ancient writers accuse her of sexual scandal, prosecutions and a failed political marriage to Gaius Silius, after which she was executed; modern historians treat many details cautiously because the sources are hostile.
In Robert Graves’s Claudius the God, its central events include the conquest of Britain, the scandals surrounding Messalina, the rise of Agrippina the Younger and the succession struggle that prepares the way for Nero.
Series
The Claudius Series is Robert Graves’s two-volume fictional memoir of the Roman emperor Claudius and the Julio-Claudian dynasty. I, Claudius follows the imperial family from Augustus to Caligula through Claudius’s wary, observant voice, while Claudius the God covers his own reign and the forces that undermine it. Together…
All books in this series
