Empress Valeria Messalina: The mother of a legitimate heir to the Roman throne and damnatio memoriae

This paper argues that the status of Messalina (AD 17/20-48) as the mother of the legitimate heir to the Roman throne was the main reason for the smearing of her reputation and eventual murder. The third wife of Emperor Claudius and two decades younger, she was the first empress to give birth to an heir while married to an emperor, an accomplishment which would have been difficult to rival. The statue of her and infant Britannicus in the Louvre is one of very few images that survived her damnatio memoriae. Written sources – the earliest of which is from about seventy years after her death, when succeeding rulers sought to smear a number of former emperors and their families in order to consolidate their own right to power – describe the succession of events leading to her death in scandalous terms. Messalina was a prime candidate for tarnishing, and throughout history she has remained a flagship symbol of the decadence of ancient Rome. This paper considers examples of the surviving archaeological material which have been associated with Messalina in the light of recent approaches to the adjustment and fabrications of her memory. The fragmentary remains of art and objects representing Messalina may point to yet another reason for tarnishing her reputation. What better way to destroy the reputation of the first Roman empress to give birth to a legitimate heir than to accuse her of prostitution and bigamy? A recent article by Siri Sande directs attention to how swiftly and subtly female portraits could be altered and reattributed. Some of the images that were attributed to her successor, Agrippina the Younger, especially those which demonstrate dynastic position, may originally have represented Messalina. In most cases, however, the visual references to Messalina in the public space were obliterated. The punishment for ignoring the damnatio memoriae, including in private areas, was severe. Yet, dissidents have always found ways to rescue items that they consider valuable. The statue of Messalina and Britannicus as Eirene and Ploutos in the Louvre may be an example of such an item.