An outstanding work of scholarship. It is unbelievable that Messalina has received so little holistic, genuine representation until now, and this biography was ridiculously overdue. Cargill-Martin writes with authority, wisdom and maturity beyond her years (the Romans might even go as far as to say she writes with ‘auctoritas’), and she restores Messalina’s voice and autonomy. She takes all of the ancient, male-centred historical sources, scrutinises them, evaluates them in an unbiased and balanced way, and then reminds us where Messalina, and indeed all Roman women, could, and did, fit into the narrative. Messalina is written back into her own story, and Cargill-Martin has done her more than justice.


Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the privilege of this arc. As an Editor working in academic Classics publishing, I’ll be recommending this to everyone I know.

Ultimately, I think it’s very difficult to write a popular historical non-fiction book and Cargill-Martin takes a good stab at it! I think my issues with this book are much more with the genre as a whole than Cargill-Martin’s approach. I particularly enjoyed the opening chapters’ overviews of the written and material evidence - it gave a really good introduction to the period.

Fantastic book and I learned so much ! I went into this not knowing much about Messalina other than “Ancient Rome” but it was so fascinating to read and uncover more

Fascinating scholarly study of the myths about the allegedly nymphomaniac wife of the emperor Claudius. This attempt to deconstruct these myths is well-researched but not at all dry. Fascinating reading!

A very thorough in-depth biography of Messalina, third wife of the Emperor Claudius. Most of my knowledge comes from the BBC's brilliant dramatisation of Robert Graves' 'I, Claudius'. Watched as a young teenager, it was definitely an eye-opener. This book is so stuffed full of information that at times I had to take a break, The many similar names also need to be absorbed along with all the familial connections. I have a Classics degree but it certainly didn't include much about Messalina. A very well laid out informative book. Thanks to Netgalley.

Messalina - a name synonymous with notoriety, debauchery, and murder - a woman who - for many - was the epitome of all that was wrong with the Roman Empire. And like Jezebel and Eve, her reputation will be forever darkened, with no hope of redemption.

With her tome on Messalina, author Cargill-Martin has three main intents: she wants the reader to look at Messalina in the overall context of the period and her husband Claudius' reign; she seeks to address and examine Messalina's role; and she wants the explain to the reader the bias of the contemporary sources.

Lets be clear from the outset - Messalina is not a feminist role model - there is quite literally, too much sex and murder for her even to be considered as such. Does her reputation need rehabilitating or understanding? Quite possibly the latter. So who in fact was Messalina and what should her legacy look like?.

Messalina is the perfect case study both of the perils of Roman womanhood and of the peculiar sensuous and paranoid world of Rome's first dynasty. And in author Cargill-Martin, Messalina has found a new voice.

I cannot recommend this book enough if you - the reader - would like to draw aside the curtain and look inside the world that this woman was born into, lived and died in. Look at her life in the context of this before judging her actions too puritanically. Could you have survived in such an environment and come out smelling like roses?

I massively enjoyed this read and feel as though I truly learned a new perspective. I will definitely be reading more from Honor, and will be purchasing this in hard copy!

I was not aware of Messalina and her "legacy". Of course I had some info about Julius Caesar and who hasn't heard of Nero, but for me Roman history is more linked to Trajan - the Roman emperor who subjugated Dacia (ancient territories of what is now Romania - my native country).
Luckily Messalina is not only Messalina's story but also a crash course on Roman history under the Julio-Claudian dynasty. And while at times it felt I was reading more about others rather than Messalina, I am perfectly aware it was necessary because how else can one understand a historical figure without background and context?! But really, I am not complaining as Honor Cargill-Martin writes non-fiction that reads like fiction(but really Roman history sure beats any fiction, lol). But back to Honor - I want to comment on her ability to think outside the box, in a way. I really loved how she put(or at least tried) everything into context, every move and play of power, trying to understand Messalina's action not through the ever present stereotypical frame of the emotional and/or overly sexual female, but rather through a more complex lens of the female who has the ability to think and act accordingly in order to secure power and favours but who is also a complex and layered human being!
As for Messalina she sure was a fascinating women and what she achieved is impressive! I love learning about powerful females, who were not afraid to employ every trick and skill in their books to obtain what they wanted!

In this book, Honor Cargill-Martin attempts to rescue the Roman empress Messalina from misogyny and obscurity. Messalina has been painted as a promiscuous and deceitful woman ever since her death, up until the modern time. Cargill-Martin admirably withstands the temptation to make this book a manifesto on arguing Messalina was misunderstood and secretly an angel - this is not a book trying to absolve her from all the crimes she's been accused of.
What Cargill-Martin does do, is attempt to get a realistic picture of how Messalina lived and how she interacted with the world around her. And what becomes clear is that no, she wasn't morally perfect, but she is interesting and her life is deserving of all the study that the (also immoral) men from that age receive.
Immensely readable, this is a great book that really brings 1st century Rome to life.

I thoroughly enjoyed this biography of Messalina; I have only been aware of the infamous third wife of Claudius through Juvenal’s Sixth Satire which I studied at school. Cargill-Martin has written an accessible new interpretation of Messalina through putting her in the context of the time she lived in the early Roman Empire where murder and adultery were commonplace and in some cases the only ways to shore up political positions.

I especially liked that this was not aimed at reclaiming Messalina’s reputation or trying to show her as some kind of Saint who was slandered by men (this is unlikely), although many stories were clearly exaggerated and it does not try to show her as some kind of anachronistic ‘feminist’ (women as well as men were her victims). What this does show is how a woman could gain and maintain power in the imperial court and that Messalina was more than just the nymphomaniac presented by Juvenal.

Cargill-Martin is a talented writer, this was very well written and engaging to read; Cargill-Martin is also a talented historian blending various sources very well and explaining the culture of the time in an accessible way. I also loved the end section looking at Messalina’s reputation after her death and how it continued to the present day through films, books and plays. I will look out for more books by this author.

Before reading this book I didn’t know much about Messalina other than her name. That’s the main thing that attracted me about the book & I was interested to learn more.

The introduction grabbed me quite well & I thought was a good set up. Unfortunately I didn’t feel this really followed through. A lot of the book is focused on the history of Rome - its set up at the time & some of the more major characters. We only get tidbits of Messalina & her life. Where we get more is Messalina post death, where her mythical history has been written by others & how that has influenced art, drama and more. This isn’t the fault of the author when this history was so long ago & we only really have the mythicism because of the people writing at the time. However, it is worth noting as I found it a little disappointing. Also worth nothing that the author does mention how little is known of Messalina’s life in the prelude. The history of Rome is interesting to learn but wasn’t what I expected.

At times the prose is quite complex, reminiscent of a book for university study rather than a bedtime read. This didn’t put me off but may be something to bear in mind for casual readers. One quirk that I particularly didn’t like in relation to the prose is there’s some repetition. In at least three different places we get variations on the line ‘she was certain that if she could just see her husband, the situation would be resolved’. We also learn a little bit more about the set up of the family (& Messalina’s birth) in a footnote & this is mentioned again in the main text a few pages later. Chapter 1 is dedicated to explaining Messalina’s downfall & then a lot of this is re-covered near the end with a little new information added. For me this repetition takes me out of the text a bit.

A lot of work and research has gone into this & the author should be commended. However I don’t feel any closer to Messalina and for me that’s stopped me putting this any higher than three stars. A solid read.

This is an absorbing, engaging debut work from author Cargill-Martin that charts the scandalous life of Empress Messalina, the third wife of Claudius. She is a powerful/vulnerable woman who is scheming, sensual, and promiscuous. Yet, she has the wit, wile, courage and temerity to take on the might of ancient Rome.
It is a captivating non-fiction narrative rich in detail that paints a vivid picture of the turbulent power, politics, and hedonistic parties that were par for the course at that time.

It seems squarely aimed at a broader public readership rather than academic historians. A bedrock of scandal, treachery and ruthless, scheming characters wrapped up in an orgy of sex will doubtless appeal to a new, modern audience.

However, if this was not already ‘dark’ enough, there is also a deeper exploration of gender politics, power corruption, and the consequences of betrayal – arguably timeless themes. Was it ever thus? The hypocrisy of a male-ordered society that felt so threatened by a woman that they had her ‘removed’ from the scene. If it sounds like modern-day cancel culture, then it probably is.

Thanks, as ever, to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for granting this arc in exchange for a review.

I was so looking forward to learning about Messalina and hearing her story reframed, but sadly this didn’t work for me. The writing is bland and I couldn’t get myself to read more than a few pages at a time. I can understand and appreciate the level of research the author has done, and I know it’s difficult to write about a figure who we know so little about due to a lack of sources. The book just isn’t for me as I went in expecting something more about Messalina and didn’t care for the numerous chapters on literally everybody but Messalina. If you’re interested in roman politics, you’ll enjoy this one but if you’re like me and wanted more focus on Messalina you may be disappointed as she’s rarely mentioned in the first 75 pages

Messalina, third wife of Emperor Claudius, is one of the most notorious women of Roman history. Accused by Roman historians of promiscuity, her name has become synonymous for a devious and sexually voracious woman.
Honor Cargill-Martin attempts, and beautifully succeed, to paint a fair portrayal of Messalina. She doesn't try to completely rehabilitate her, but to show how the <i>damnatio memoriae</i> she suffered after her fall, and the reputation she was given by Roman historians, unjustly erased her true personality and political importance.

I absolutely adored this. Messalina has never been one of my favourite historical figures, but I've always been curious about her and this work truly opened my eyes. Cargill-Martin points out how Messalina was probably the first Roman empress in the real sense of the word: Livia, Augustus's wife, was maybe more influential and powerful, but Messalina was the first Roman empress who started to create a position for herself in a political world dominated by men, and to become a force to be reckoned with.

She was given unprecedented honours by her husband, like riding in a triumphal procession right behind him, in the place of honour usually reserved for the triumphator's heir. She eliminated her political enemies, but, rather than doing it for petty jealousies, she did it to strengthen her husband's rule or to defend herself or her children. She created a sort of political faction of men who worked for her, and her actions showed calculation and cleverness.

The explanation given for Messalina's fall was also totally convincing to me. I always thought that the story of Messalina's bigamous marriage didn't make sense. The author argues that Messalina, while she definitely had a relationship with Silius, wasn't planning a conspiracy against her husband, but rather she was the victim of one. She was probably taken down by Narcissus, one of Claudius' freedmen and her old ally, because she was becoming too poweful and too unpredictable (it reminded me of Anne Boleyn's falling out with Cromwell and her subsequent fall).

One of the most interesting chapters of the book is the one where the author theorizes how Messalina's reputation was born, and how she argues that it was directly linked to the reputation of Agrippina, Claudius's fourth wife. Roman historians slandered her too, mostly to criticize Claudius's reign, but they did it in a very different way: they presented Agrippina as ambitious, scheming and sexless, and by contrast rendered Messalina stupid, irrational and passionate. Basically, historians couldn't cope with the fact that both women were powerful and ambitious in their own way.

Truly one of the best, most intelligent biographies I've read in a while. Highly recommended.

From what I read of this, it is an accessible and lively biography of Messalina, third wife of Emperor Claudius but - much more importantly - a fascinating figure in her own right.

Cargill-Martin navigates the telling of ancient history well, acknowledging that facts are hard to come by and that Messalina has suffered from being viewed only through the writing of others (always men) over history. She's generally been famed for her scandals and sex-drive when there does seem much more to her.

I desperately wanted to read this but the formatting of the electronic version put me off - I'm a footnote and family tree geek, neither of which were easy to follow in my version, so I felt I was missing important information. I'm sure this would make a gorgeous actual book when all this is present and usable.

'Sometimes, the fictions a society concocts about itself tell us just as much about that society as the facts.’

When I was studying ancient Roman History last century, Messalina was mentioned (briefly) as the wife of the Emperor Claudius. Some years later, I read various representations of Messalina as a power-hungry nymphomaniac. Ms Cargill-Martin’s book caught my attention, with its promise of focus on Messalina as a person rather than as an object.

Ms Cargill-Martin focusses on what we know about Messalina and the society in which she lived. Contemporary records are limited: the Senate issued a damnatio memoriæ after Messalina’s death (a modern Latin phrase meaning ‘condemnation of memory’ which indicates her exclusion from official accounts). We know that she was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty: a great- grand niece of the Emperor Augustus, second cousin to the Emperor Caligula and cousin of the Emperor Nero. Messalina was married to Claudius (his third wife) two years before Caligula was murdered and Claudius was proclaimed Emperor.
‘
Messalina, I will contend, was a crucial figure in the history of Imperial Rome’s first century.’

I found this book interesting. Messalina is no unblemished hero: she was unafraid to kill for political power. And yet, those men who did the same as she did are not (generally) judged so harshly. Powerful women are often portrayed as ‘unnatural’. I enjoyed the book because of the care Ms Cargill Martin has taken to document her research and to place Messalina within the turbulent world of imperial Roman politics. A fascinating read.

‘Western Society has always been possessed by an impulse to categorise women.’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This was so good! Which shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve seen any of the author's TikToks because she is an expert at, among many other things, making history exciting and engaging.

Messalina is a non-fiction book about a real life figure but I think she’s a suitable pick for a mythology book Monday because we have mythologised Messalina beyond who she really was: a regular human woman. Cargill-Martin explores not only this act of mythologising but how politically charged and intentional it is, and how it plays into larger aspects of patriarchy.

Reviewing historical documents, this book reconstructs the life of Messalina - who we see was a complex woman, capable of incredible strategy but also swayed by emotions. She is allowed space in this book to be as incompetent as she is brilliant, as politically adept as she is passionately romantic. And sometimes all at once - instead of reducing Messalina to political plot points, Cargill-Martin considers both the complexity of Roman politics but also of human nature - that sometimes we don’t always choose the course we know is wisest, and sometimes there might be multiple reasons for acting in a certain manor.

If you’ve never heard of Messalina, she is characterised in society as voraciously sexual and deviant. Within this book, we see a wider context of “Messalina likely had affairs - so too did many women” and I really enjoyed seeing that on a page. Women in history are notoriously difficult to study, made into cautionary tales or to fit archetypes so to envision a world in which many women existed in all their complexity (imagine!) was refreshing to see in a historical biography.

And there’s so much too about wider Roman politics and the role Messalina played. You also don’t have to know much about the period to find the book beguiling, informative and charged with the clear passion the author has for the subject. I highly recommend!

Messalina is famous for what Giovenale wrote about her ""lassata, viris nondum satiata, recessit". Giovenale, like the other Latin writers, were used to describe emperors and their wives and lover according to who was in charge.
This is an interesting and well researched book that talks about a more complex woman and I appreciated the style of writing and the researches.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I don't remember much about Messalina from when I was at university studying the Julio-Claudian period. So I was very pleased to be granted access to an ARC.

I think Cargill-Martin provides a good overview of the time period looking at all of the various important people back then. Most of all she gives Messalina a fair go, particularly in light of her rather tarnished reputation. Was she the whore that she is portrayed. It makes for a great read and I really enjoyed delving back into this period.

I really struggled with the file formatting for this title, so it was hard to get into. The story was okay but not as compelling as I thought it would be.