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Loading... Messalina: Empress, Adulteress, Libertine: The Story of the Most Notorious Woman of the Roman Worldby Honor Cargill-Martin
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Through the case of Messalina, who has been much maligned throughout history, the author presents a balanced feminist critique of imperial Rome, which she wryly describes as "the misogynistic patriarchy that we call the birthplace of Western civilisation, rationality and liberty." She makes a compelling argument that the aspersions cast on Messalina reflect the fears of (male) historians and politicians about emperors and the changes in Roman society. Recommended for all libraries. ( ) no reviews | add a review
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The story of Messalina, third wife of the emperor Claudius and one of the most notorious women to have inhabited the Roman world. The image of the empress Messalina as a ruthless, 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 maneuvering 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. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)937.07092History and Geography Ancient World Italian Peninsula to 476 and adjacent territories to 476 Italian Peninsula to 476 and adjacent territories to 476 Constitutional 31 B.C.-284 A.D.LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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