Statilia Messalina
{{Short description|Roman empress from AD 66 to 68}}
{{Infobox royalty
|name=Statilia Messalina
|image=Portrait of Statilia Messalina.jpg
|image_size=200px
|caption=Statilia Messalina, third wife of Nero
|succession=Roman empress
|reign= AD 66 – 9 June AD 68
|consort= yes
|birth_date=c. AD 35
|birth_place=
|death_date=after AD 68
|death_place=
|place of burial=
|father= possibly Titus Statilius Taurus Corvinus
|mother=
|spouse=Marcus Julius Vestinus Atticus
Nero
|issue=at least one son
|house=Julio-Claudian (by marriage)
}}
{{Julio-Claudian dynasty}}
Statilia Messalina (c. AD 35 – after 68) was a Roman patrician woman, a Roman Empress and third wife to Roman Emperor Nero.
Biography
=Background=
The ancient sources say little of her family; however, Suetonius states that she was a great-great-granddaughter of Titus Statilius Taurus, a Roman general who was awarded a triumph for his victory and was twice consul. She was either the daughter of Titus Statilius Taurus Corvinus, consul in 45 AD, and who was involved in a plot against the Emperor Claudius,[https://books.google.com/books?id=2esYJJUETiYC&dq=Titus+Statilius+Taurus+Corvinus&pg=PA303 Lightman, Marjorie and Benjamin A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women] Facts on File, Inc. (2008) pg 303 Google Books or a daughter of the sister of Corvinus, Statilia Messallina.Syme, R., Augustan Aristocracy, p. 377 Her grandmother might have been Valeria Messalina Corvina, one of the daughters of Roman senator Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus who served as consul in 31 BC.
=Marriages=
Her fourth husband was the consul Marcus Julius Vestinus Atticus to whom she may have borne a son (who died in 88 AD). Around 65 AD, she became Nero's mistress. After the death of the emperor's second wife Poppaea Sabina, Vestinus was forced to commit suicide in 66, so Nero could marry Statilia.
She was one of the few of Nero's courtiers who survived the fall of his reign. After Nero's death, Otho promised that he would marry her, before his suicide in 69 AD.
See also
References
=Citations=
{{Reflist}}
=Bibliography=
- Syme, R., Augustan Aristocracy
- Griffin, Miriam, Nero. The End of a Dynasty. Batsford, London, 1984
- Raepsaet-Charlier M.-Th., Prosopographie des femmes de l'ordre sénatorial (Ier-IIe siècles), 2 vol., Louvain, 1987, 360 ff.
- Zanker, P, Fittschen, K., Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom, Mainz am Rhein, 1983, 75, Taf.93.94.
- Annals
- Lives of the Twelve Caesars
- Satires
External links
- [http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/statilia_messalina/t.html Coinage of Statilia]
{{Roman empresses}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:1st-century Roman empresses