Messalīna Valeria, a daughter of Messala Barbatus. She married the emperor Claudius, and disgraced herself by her cruelties and incontinence. Her husband’s palace was not the only seat of her lasciviousness, but she prostituted herself in the public streets, and few men there were at Rome who could not boast of having enjoyed the favours of the impure Messalina. Her extravagancies at last irritated her husband; he commanded her to appear before him to answer all the accusations which were brought against her, upon which she attempted to destroy herself, and when her courage failed, one of the tribunes, who had been sent to her, despatched her with his sword, A.D. 48. It is in speaking of her debaucheries and lewdness that a celebrated satirist says,
Et lassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit.
Juvenal.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11, ch. 37.—Suetonius, Claudius.—Dio Cassius.——Another, called also Statilia. She was descended from a consular family, and married the consul Atticus Vistinus, whom Nero murdered. She received with great marks of tenderness her husband’s murderer and married him. She had married four husbands before she came to the imperial throne; and after the death of Nero she retired to literary pursuits and peaceful occupations. Otho courted her, and would have married her had he not destroyed himself. In his last moments he wrote her a very pathetic and consolatory letter, &c. Tacitus, Annals.
Messālīnus Marcus Valerius, a Roman officer in the reign of Tiberius. He was appointed governor of Dalmatia, and rendered himself known by his opposition to Piso, and by his attempts to persuade the Romans of the necessity of suffering women to accompany the camps on their different expeditions. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 3.——One of Domitian’s informers.——A flatterer of the emperor Tiberius.
Messāna, an ancient and celebrated town of Sicily, on the straits which separate Italy from Sicily. It was anciently called Zancle, and was founded 1600 years before the christian era. The inhabitants, being continually exposed to the depredation of the people of Cuma, implored the assistance of the Messenians of Peloponnesus, and with them repelled the enemy. After this victorious campaign, the Messenians entered Zancle, and lived in such intimacy with the inhabitants that they changed their name, and assumed that of the Messenians, and called their city Messana. Another account say that Anaxilaus tyrant of Rhegium made war against the Zancleans, with the assistance of the Messenians of Peloponnesus, and that after he had obtained a decisive victory, he called the conquered city Messana in compliment to his allies, about 494 years before the christian era. After this revolution at Zancle, the Mamertini took possession of it, and made it the capital of the neighbouring country. See: [Mamertini]. It afterwards fell into the hands of the Romans, and was for some time the chief of their possessions in Sicily. The inhabitants were called Messanii, Messanienses, and Mamertini. The straits of Messana have always been looked upon as very dangerous, especially by the ancients, on account of the rapidity of the currents, and the irregular and violent flowing and ebbing of the sea. Strabo, bk. 6.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 23.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Thucydides, bk. 1, &c.—Herodotus, bk. 6, ch. 23; bk. 7, ch. 28.
Messapia, a country of Italy, between Tarentum and Brundusium. It is the same as Calabria. It received its name from Messapus the son of Neptune, who left a part of Bœotia called Messapia, and came to Italy, where he assisted the Rutulians against Æneas. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 513.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 691; bk. 8, li. 6; bk. 9, li. 27.
Messatis, a town of Achaia. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 18.
Messe, a town in the island of Cythera. Statius, bk. 1, Thebiad, bk. 4, li. 226.
Messeis, a fountain of Thessaly. Strabo, bk. 9.
Messēne, a daughter of Triopas king of Argos, who married Polycaon, son of Lelex king of Laconia. She encouraged her husband to levy troops, and to seize a part of Peloponnesus, which, after it had been conquered, received her name. She received divine honours after her death, and had a magnificent temple at Ithome, where her statue was made half of gold and half of Parian marble. Pausanias, bk. 4, chs. 1 & 13.