The Scandalous Empress

THE SCENE: Even a respectable naturalist like Pliny the Elder was not above engaging in some of the salacious and slanderous gossip that often followed around the powerful Roman Empress Messalina.

THE TEXT: Messalina, the wife of Claudius Ceasar, thinking it would be a royal triumph, chose to compete against a certain notorious prostitute, and, over a twenty-four-hour period, beat her record by having sex with twenty-five men.

– Natural History, Pliny the Elder, 1st Century AD