Claudius and his Four Wives

The second two wives of Claudius; Messalina and Agrippina get many more column inches than Plautia and Paetina. These first two wives' history is virtually unknown and after divorcing Claudius fall out of the limelight. largely because they pre-date Claudius' ascendancy to becoming emperor.

Despite his infirmities it is still not that unusual for him to have had four wives. He needed to be married off for political and other reasons. Obviously he had much input into the selection of Messalina and Agrippina and perhaps he was easily beguiled by these two scheming women. Perhaps he was not entirely taken in by these women, knowing he could exact the ultimate sanction. Nevertheless, as we will see, both overstepped the bounds. One paid with her head and it is almost inevitable that Claudius was contemplating dispatching Agrippina had she not struck the first blow!

Plautia Urgulanilla

She was an Etruscan born to a successful General and Consul called Marcus Plautius Silvanus. Claudius married her in about AD9 and divorced her in AD24. During this surprisingly long marriage they produced a son, Claudius Drusus, who died aged about four when he tossed a pear in the air and choked to death when he caught it in his mouth. They also had a daughter; Claudia, who was considered illegitimate and exposed. Claudius divorced her on the grounds of adultery and her possible involvement in the death of her sister-in-law Apronia.

Robert Graves describes her as obese but he may have done this as a device to show the further humiliation that Claudius would have suffered prior to unexpectedly becoming emperor. Only one German source comes close in supporting Graves but offers no proof. One suspects that, although the emperor's family would not have married him off to beauty, they would not have cared for a large, gross woman lumbering around the palaces especially one who would have been quite young. Also there is no suggestion that this marriage was concocted for political alliances.

The died in obscurity at a later date

Aelia Paetina

Her father was Sextus Aelius Catus and a consul in AD4 while her mother is unknown. She was born into the family of the Aelii Tuberones. Her father may have died when she was very young, as she was raised by her relative Praetorian Guard Prefect Lucius Seius Strabo, the biological father of her adoptive brother Lucius Aelius Sejanus

Claudius left it four years after the divorce of Plautia before he married again. On reflection, this could be considered a long gap. Paetina was mother to their daughter Claudia Antonia. The marriage was not long lived. It is suspected that she hen-pecked Claudius and Claudius used spurious reasons to divorce her. However, her fall from grace was not total. After the execution of Messalina in AD48, she was back in the frame as a possible wife again for Claudius, however Agrippina the Younger was eventually chosen after it was thought that her arrogance would have only grown over the superseding years.

However, he could not stop himself from arranging another marriage even considering Aelia Paetina again, He thought about marrying Lollia Paulina, who had been married to Caius Caesar. But it was Agrippina, the daughter of his brother, Germanicus whose charms appealed most to him

Messalina

<only include> Valeria Messalina (c. 17/20–48) was the third wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius. Messalina was child of Domitia Lepida the Younger and Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus. She was also a paternal cousin of the Emperor Nero, second cousin of the Emperor Caligula, and great-grandniece of the Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she married her lover while still married to Claudius. An act for which she was executed.

Little is known about Messalina’s life prior to her marriage in 38 to her second cousin Claudius, who was then about 48 years old. But it is clear that the came from Rome's inner circle and would have been used to the taste of power. Two children were born as a result of their union: a daughter Claudia Octavia (born 39 or 40), a future empress, stepsister and first wife to the emperor Nero; and a son, Britannicus.

She slipped in the role of empress effortlessly, starting with the re-exile of Julia Livilla. She later had her executed. Agrippina sensing the same fate made her self scarce PDQ

While Claudius was away in Britain, rumor had it that Messalina challenged Rome’s top prostitute to see who could sleep with the most men in one night. Needless to say Messalina came out on top with a total of 25 lovers. Roman historians also claim that Messalina used sex as a weapon to control politicians, and that she had a brothel under an assumed name, where she forced upper class women to work as prostitutes, and then blackmailed them. Then there was her affair with the dancer Mnester, who came from peasant stock, but who had worked hard . Messalina was his biggest devotee, she had statues erected, and hired poets to write odes to his hotness. But Mnester spurned her advances because he feared what would happen if Claudius found out. But Messalina had a trick up her sleeve, she told her husband that Mnester had refused to follow her orders (she didn’t tell him what those orders were of course). She convinced Claudius to inform everyone to treat her wishes with the utmost respect. Claudius told Mnester to precisely what Messalina wished

Her husband is represented as easily led by her. At best he is either unaware of her many adulteries or at worst a cuckolded husband unable or unwilling to satisfy her sexual demands. She grew powerful in the Emperor’s court and one could only surmise that she could have only have done this with Claudius’ consent. Either, he was truly enamored with her and would deny her nothing or she was able to bully or manipulate a weak man to get what she wanted. Whatever the truth, it would take an unbelievable degree of arrogance mixed with stupidity to believe she could marry the Senator Gaius Silius in AD48 while still married to Claudius. Perhaps this was a precursor to a coup but she underestimated her power, the contempt she was held in and the power Claudius wielded through the office of Emperor, especially among the soldiery. He ordered her death and she was offered the choice of suicide. Too frightened to stab herself, she was killed by a praetorian guard. The Roman Senate then ordered that Messalina's name be removed from all public or private places and all statues of her taken down We get our history from Tacitus and Suetonius, as well as Cassius Dio, Pliny the Elder and Juvenal. Suetonius rarely needs much smoke to narrate to us a gossipy, scandalous blazing fire yet he seems to hold back a little with Messalina. He does not so much recount her adulteries for their own sake but as proofs of Claudius’ weaknesses and poor judgment.

Do stories of Messalina Come from Credible Historical Resources?

Several great Roman writers mentioned Valeria Messalina in their works. The list of names is impressive: Cassius Dio, Josephus, and Pliny the Elder, Juvenal, Plutarch, Suetonius, Tacitus, Sextus Aurelius Victor, and Seneca the Younger.

However, it should be noted that Messalina died before most of them were born. Josephus was a little boy when she died as well. Pliny the Elder, who was born in 23 AD during the lifetime of Messalina stayed in the northern part of Italy. He was a student of law and in 46 AD became a soldier. Also, it must be noted that in his writings, he's influenced by the works of Seneca. Therefore, the only known person who was active as a writer and who could have met Messalina in person was Seneca the Younger.

Was Messalina a Victim of Seneca's Revenge?

When Caligula became emperor in 38 AD, a conflict between the new ruler and Seneca appeared. It was caused by Caligula’s jealousy of Seneca’s remarkable gift for rhetoric. With Agrippina’s support, Seneca narrowly avoided execution, and when Claudius lost interest in his wife Aelia Paetina, Seneca hoped that the emperor would marry Agrippina (who appreciated Seneca). Thus, it could be said that from the beginning, Seneca was never in the group of Messalina’s supporters.

Claudius succeeded Caligula in 41 AD and, due to the decision by the new emperor and his wife, Seneca was banished to the island of Corsica. Some historians exclusively blame Messalina for this act. They say that she was aware of the attention which Seneca gave Agrippina and she wanted to send him far away from Rome. She was said to be afraid that the intrigue created by these two was dangerous for her position and life. Nevertheless, when Messalina died, Claudius married Agrippina and Seneca was finally able to return to Rome. He became a tutor to her son, Nero, who was 12 years old.

Seneca wrote his accounts of Messalina during his stay in Corsica. He was banished out of Rome and unhappy with the situation he was in. Moreover, his wife Pompeia Paulina was in conflict with an empress.

when he learned that besides other shameful and wicked deeds she had actually married Gaius Silius, and that a formal contract had been signed in the presence of witnesses, he put her to death and declared before the assembled praetorian guard

So, not much detail beyond a vague and all encompassing ‘’shameful and wicked deeds’’. His next reference to Messalina likewise is made only to show Claudius bemoaning and fearful of conspiracies from all directions rather than a strong leader taking charge of events

His ardent love for Messalina too was cooled, not so much by her unseemly and insulting conduct, as through fear of danger, since he believed that her paramour Silius aspired to the throne. On that occasion he made a shameful and cowardly flight to the camp, doing nothing all the way but ask whether his throne was secure.

Even when Suetonius recounts a particularly nasty piece of subterfuge by Messalina, he is really making the point that Claudius was gullible and superstitious. He recounts the tale of Appius Silenus who despite being her step-father she harboured an un-reciprocated crush

Appius Silanus met his downfall. When Messalina and Narcissus had put their heads together to destroy him, they agreed on their parts and the latter rushed into his patron's bed-chamber before daybreak in pretended consternation, declaring that he had dreamed that Appius had made an attack on the emperor. Then Messalina, with assumed surprise, declared that she had had the same dream for several successive nights. A little later, as had been arranged, Appius, who had received orders the day before to come at that time, was reported to be forcing his way in, and as if were proof positive of the truth of the dream, his immediate accusation and death were ordered.

Finally, Suetonius wants to paint Claudius as dithering, doddery, forgetful old man, who does not remember executing his wife. Although you wonder if Suetonius has his tongue firmly in his cheek when he says.

When he had put Messalina to death, he asked shortly after taking his place at the table why the empress did not come. He caused many of those whom he had condemned to death to be summoned the very next day to consult with him or game with him, and sent a messenger to upbraid them for sleepy-heads when they delayed to appear

We pick up on Messalina in the eleventh book of Tacitus’ Annals when she is at the height of her power. Tacitus provides much more of a narrative account of Messalina’s character and events. He starts by telling us that she, although a great beauty herself was jealous of Poppaea Sabina (mother of the wife of Nero of the same name) and attempted to smear hear name alongside her lover. She was helped by Lucius Vitellius, father of the short lived emperor Vitellius

She hastened herself to effect Poppaea's destruction, and hired agents to drive her to suicide by the terrors of a prison. Caesar meanwhile was so unconscious that a few days afterwards he asked her husband Scipio, who was dining with him, why he sat down to table without his wife, and was told in reply that she had paid the debt of nature.

Messalina had a eye for good looking men and it was not long before she used her charms to lure a young noble called Caius Silius to her bed. He knew to refuse her would lead to his destruction. Yet to fall under her control was equally dangerous. He thought it best to go along for the ride as it were Tacitus observes that danger itself was the best safety. She showered him with gifts to such an extent that...

the very furniture of the emperor were to be seen in the possession of the paramour.

Why Silius thought that he and Messalina could marry without consequence while Claudius was visiting Ostia was truly astonishing even in a debased Rome. Even Tacitus is lost of explanation when he says I do but relate what I have heard and what our fathers have recorded

It was likely that Narcissus, one of Claudius' most trusted freedmen had also had an affair with Messalina and was not best disposed to her when she married Silius. It was he who hatch the plan to have the ex-prostitute and trusted friend of Claudius to tell him of the marriage The next step in the plan was to prevent Messalina from seeing Claudius and begging for mercy

On this, Calpurnia (that was the woman's name), as soon as she was allowed a private interview, threw herself at the emperor's knees, crying out that Messalina was married to Silius

Messalina was apparently unaware partying at her house with her friends, drinking and indulging in Bacchanalian dances when the troops came to arrest her. Caught up in this debacle many Roman knights met their doom on the orders of Narcissus. Claudius seemed unwilling to take charge and let event s fall as they may. Messalina meanwhile believed that she could have Octavia and Brittanicus entreat Claudius on her behalf even if she could not see him personally. However Narcissus knew time was short and sent troops with an order of execution. Time was up and Messalina held a dagger to her throat in the presence of her mother but she could not bring herself to commit suicide even when the troops rushed in. Still she hesitated until on ethe guards dispatched her.

Claudius was hosting a banquet when he was told of the news. He was not curious as to how he had died but asked for his wine cup to be refilled.

they told him that Messalina was dead, without mentioning whether it was by her own or another's hand. Nor did he ask the question, but called for the cup and finished his repast as usual

Surprisingly for an author not shy about repeating Gossip, Suetonius does not relate the competition between Messalina and a local prostitute. Apparently they vied to see how many men they could have intercourse with. In keeping with a good story Messalina won with 25 successful conquests according to Pliny the Elder

The Empresse Messalina, wife of Claudius Cæsar, thinking it the onely victorie for a Ladie and Queene to excell in this feat, chose the most gallant curtisan and commonest strumpet in all Rome, to trie masteries and to contend with for the best game: and in verie truth, she woon the prize: for in the space of 24 houres she outwent her [a beastly thing to be written] no fewer than 25 times.

Why Pliny should relate this story is somewhat baffling. He makes the point that animal procreate for purely biological and instinctive reasons while in humans in addition use sex as pleasurable experience and can be at times be insatiable. Apparently the story of Messalina and the prostitute was apropos to sell his argument.

Juvenal went further by claiming she ofter willing worked as a prostitute at the local Lupinar. Of course given her position she could have any man she wanted and(indeed she did) would not need to work the local brothel and service corpulent, drunken Romans. Nonetheless, it makes for a titillating account

When his wife, Messalina, knew he was asleep, She would go about with no more than a maid for escort. The Empress dared, at night, to wear the hood of a whore, And she preferred a mat to her bed in the Palatine Palace. Dressed in that way, with a blonde wig hiding her natural Hair, she’d enter a brothel that stank of old soiled sheets, And make an empty cubicle, her own; then sell herself, Her nipples gilded, naked, taking She-Wolf for a name, Displaying the belly you came from, noble Britannicus, She’d flatter her clients on entry, and take their money. Then lie there obligingly, delighting in every stroke. Later on, when the pimp dismissed his girls, she’d leave Reluctantly, waiting to quit her cubicle there, till the last Possible time, her taut sex still burning, inflamed with lust, Then she’d leave, exhausted by man, but not yet sated,

Cassius Dio also recounts the story of Messalina's destruction of Appius Silanus and is incredulous that he could be executed on the strength of a shared dream. We should not forget that Claudius, due to the sympathetic treatment given to him by Robert Graves in I-Claudius is supposed to be the decent Emperor book-ended by two monsters and someone who was well read and less likely to be swayed by the auguries.

Thus Silanus perished because of a mere vision. After his death the Romans no longer cherished fair hopes of Claudius, and Annius Vinicianus with some others straightway formed a plot against him

Vinicianus plotted against Claudius on the assumption that he was a tyrant as bad as the other Caesars rather than some weak-willed husband totally in snared by a calculating wife. Messalina could not be trusted to save the necks of those she actually liked. Claudius was keen to remind his soldiers to avenge those who have injured you and by this measure Caecina Paetus was also but on trial for treasonable remarks. His wife, being close to Messalina might have thought to use her influence to save herself as well as her husband but no such help was forthcoming.

You also get the feeling that Cassius Dio, like Suetonius will include a good story even if its veracity is barely tenable. For instance the actor Mnester had refused to sleep with Messalina. Apparently, Messalina went hot foot to Claudius and told him to Mnester to deny her nothing. This, Claudius, obligingly did and without qualifying the precise definition of "deny her nothing" he took to her bed. She played this card with other suitors with similar outcomes and explained to her conquests that Claudius knew what was going on and countenanced her unchastity May be he did!

It is said that Claudius, who is considered a benign emperor, bookended by two monsters, nevertheless executed thirty five senators and three hundred Romans, mostly during his marriage to Messalina. What are we to make of Messalina's stories? It is too easy to dismiss these accounts as rantings of misogynistic men who have their nose put out by a powerful women who eventually overplayed her hand. It was not unknown that Roman women in imperial circles were not always faithful wives, the brothel story is almost surely an invention but her life as an over sexed adulterer married to older, doddery old man seems plausible. Even in recent times we are reminded of Princess Diana and her numerous affairs as evidence that these things can happen. Who knows what future historians will make of Diana's antics. Just because some of the more lurid tales are an exaggeration the charges against Messalina do seem to have more than a grain of truth. It is also possible that there was an element of subterfuge by Claudius and his inner circle. How easy would it have been to get rid of enemies and and blame it on the wife

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  Caligula II, aka Messalina, Empress of Love 1977

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  Messalina in Lisisica's booth - Agostino Carracci

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  Gustave Moreau, "Messalina"

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  Georges Antoine Rochegrosse "The Death of Messalina"

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  Bernardelli Henrique "Messalina"

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Agrippina

Agrippina or Agrippina the Younger (AD16-AD59) was the daughter of Claudius' heroic brother Germanicus and his wife, Agrippina the Elder who was the step-daughter of Tiberius. It is clear that she came from a powerful and well connected family so she would have been part of the Claudian-Julian circle.

There were rumors that this embarked on an incestuous relationship with her brother Caligula Gossips suggested that he often had sex with Drusilla and occasionally with his other sisters. These rumors would follow her throughout her life and it is hinted that she made sexual overtones to her son, the Emperor Nero. Whether this is true and whether the advances were accepted one can never know. See Caligula - Sex and Sexual Perversions for more discussion

Her first marriage at the age of thirteen was arranged marriage to Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and they bore a son; the future Emperor Nero. Ominously, Lucius is quoted to have said. I don't think anything produced by me and Agrippina could possibly be good for the state or the people.

After her sister, Drusilla's death and Caligula's increasing madness, she was exiled after being implicated in plot to overthrow Caligula called the Plot of the three daggers. Livilia and Agrippina were accused of a lesbian relationship and exiled to Pontine Islands. At this point it looked like here life was on the same trajectory as her mother's who had similarly being exiled during Tiberius' reign, was beaten and tortured and eventually starved herself to death. However, Caligula was satisfied just to get them out of his sight and after his death they were rehabilitated back in to the emperor's circle. Initially she tried to woo the married and future emperor Galba. However he was too devoted to his wife (or man servant) to be attracted to Agrippina. Nevertheless, she is said to have kept a low profile during Messalina's ascendancy and it is known that the two were less than close.

After the execution of Messalina, Claudius had vowed never to remarry, but less than a year later he was ensnared by Agrippina. As she had been part of the Emperor's circle she had access to both Claudius and powerful clique that ran the Empire. She began with an affair with freedman Marcus Antonius Pallas. She used her influence to get Pallas to persuade the senators to back a marriage between herself and Claudius, even though the law considered incestuous for an uncle to marry his niece.

There are two views you can take on the reasons for the marriage between Claudius and Agrippina. On the one hand you can look for a political reason. The marriage would have ended the fued between the Claudian and Julian wings on the family. Alternatively, you can take a tabloid approach and assume that a seductress was easily able to ensnare a weak emperor and use that marriage to ensure that her son Nero would become emperor ahead of Claudius' first born son Britannicus.

Suetonios assumes the latter. [Agrippina] took advantage of the kisses and endearments which their near relationship admitted, to inflame his desires, he got some one to propose at the next meeting of the senate, that they should oblige the emperor to marry Agrippina, as a measure highly conducive to the public interest .

The queasy feeling of marrying one's young niece was not lost on Claudius when he said of Agrippina "My daughter, my nursling, born and brought up upon my lap." .

What Claudius wanted from this marriage will never be known. Stability of his reign?, affection and companionship or just to be left alone to get on with his writings. What ever it was, Suetonius suggests he began to have second thoughts.

he gave some manifest indications that he repented of his marriage with Agrippina. "It has been my misfortune to have wives who have been unfaithful to my bed; but they did not escape punishment."

Agrippina playes on Claudius' fears of being owerthrown by agreeing to adopt Nero and make his heir apparent ahead of his own son Britannicus even though he was just two years older. She used her affair with Pallas to urge him to persuade Claudius that the Emperor would be strenghened by adopting a grandson of Germanicus as well as protect the younger Britannicus.

Claudius also would do well to strengthen himself with a young prince who could share his cares with him.

Agrippina futher strenghtened her power by demanding that Claudius execute or banish Britannicus' closest teachers on the pretext that Britannicus has greeted Nero under his old pre-adoption name of Domitius and that his advisors may be posioning his mind. Subsequenting education of Britannicus became the responsibility of Agrippina.

Claudius may have wised up to the fact that he had been taken for a fool and a cuckold all his married life but it was too late.Tacitus implies that Agrippina may have been in ear-shot when an intoxicated Claudius blurted out that his adulterous wives often would push the envelope too far and, given enough rope would hang themselves! Wasting no time she set about her final objective of getting Nero on the throne. The poison of choice was mushrooms but she deliberated long and hard on the dose. Should she give a massive and painful overdose that caused instant death and risk that she would be fingered as the perpetrator. Or should she provide a smaller dose that would cause a slow lingering death but which might give enough time for Claudius to declare Brittanicus again as his heir. She hit upon a middle course

She decided on some rare compound which might derange his mind and delay death. A person skilled in such matters was selected, Locusta by name, who had lately been condemned for poisoning

Mushrooms, a favorite of Caludius was chosen as the method of delivery.

Some authors say that it was given him as he was feasting with the priests in the Capitol, by the eunuch Halotus, his taster. Others say by Agrippina, at his own table, in mushrooms, a dish of which he was very fond .

Needless to say poisioning was an inexact science and a combination of diarrhea and vomiting may have expurgated the worst of the posion as he lay in his sick bed. Nothing ventured, nothing gained she knew that she would have to follow through with her crime and had her doctor administer a further dose in the guise of medicine.

for he knew that the greatest crimes are perilous in their inception, but well rewarded after their consummation.

She ensured that the funeral of Claudius was to be of the same scale that Livia gave to Augustus. The irony of Livia's rumoured poisoning of Augustus was probably not lost on those in the inner circle

Divine honours were decreed to Claudius, and his funeral rites were solemnized on the same scale as those of Augustus; for Agrippina strove to emulate the magnificence of her great-grandmother, Livia.

Her plotting was to be her downfall as the young Nero was not having his mother run the empire in his name so he had her murdered. See the Death of Agripinna