Messalina : empress, adulteress, libertine : the story of the most notorious woman of the Roman world /

Messalina : empress, adulteress, libertine : the story of the most notorious woman of the Roman world /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Cargill, Honor, author.
Edition:	First Pegasus Books cloth edition.
Imprint:	New York : Pegasus Books, 2023. ©2023
Description:	xxix, 402 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), maps, genealogical tables ; 24 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Messalina, Valeria, -- -48. Empresses -- Rome -- Biography. Rome -- History -- Claudius, 41-54. Biographies.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/13150015

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9781639363957 1639363955
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 352-363) and index.
Summary:	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.

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Call Number:	DG284.C37 2023
c.1	Available Loan period: standard loan Scan and Deliver Request for Pickup Need help? - Ask a Librarian