Valeria Messalina, sometimes spelled Messallina, (c. 17/20–48) married (as his third wife) the Roman Emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of the Emperor Nero, a second-cousin of the Emperor Caligula, and a great-grandniece of the Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she allegedly conspired against her husband and was executed on the discovery of the plot. Her notorious reputation arguably results from political bias, but works of art and literature have perpetuated it into modern times.
Messalina was the daughter of Domitia Lepida the Younger and her first cousin Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus. Her mother was the youngest child of the consul Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Antonia Major. Domitius had been the first husband of the future Empress Agrippina the Younger and the biological father of the future Emperor Nero, making Nero Messalina's first cousin despite a seventeen-year age difference. Messalina's grandmothers Claudia Marcella and Antonia Major were half sisters. Claudia Marcella, Messalina's paternal grandmother, was the daughter of Augustus' sister Octavia the Younger by her marriage to Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor. Antonia Major, Messalina's maternal grandmother, was the elder daughter of Octavia by her marriage to Mark Antony, and was Claudius' maternal aunt. There was, therefore, a large amount of inbreeding in the family.
Messalina is a 1924 Italian historical drama film directed by Enrico Guazzoni and starring Rina De Liguoro, Calisto Bertramo and Gildo Bocci. It portrays the life of Messalina, the third wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius.
Messalina (Italian: Messalina Venere imperatrice) is a 1960 Italian-French peplum film directed by Vittorio Cottafavi.
My Selene
[Music and lyrics by Jani Liimatainen]
Nocturnal poetry:
Dressed in the whitest silver you'd smile at me
Every night I wait for my sweet Selene
But still...
Solitude's upon my skin
A Life that's bound by the chains of reality
Would you let me be your Endymion?
I would
Bathe in your moonlight and slumber in peace
Enchanted by your kiss in forever sleep
But until we unite
I live for that night
Wait for time
Two souls entwine
In the break of new dawn
My hope is forlorn
Shadows they will fade
But I'm always in the shade
Without you...
Serene and silent sky
Rays of moon are dancing with the tide
A perfect sight, a world devine
And I...
The loneliest child alive
Always waiting, searching for my rhyme
I'm still alone in the dead of night
Silent I lie with a smile on my face
Appearance deceives and the silence betrays
As I wait for the time
My dream comes alive
Always out of sight
But never out of mind
And under waning moon
Still I long for you
Alone against the light
Solitude am I
In the end I'm enslaved by my dream
In the end there's no soul who'd bleed for me
Hidden from daylight I'm sealed in my cave
Trapped in a dream that is slowly turning to nightmare,
Where I'm all alone
Venial is life when you're but a dream,
The book is still open the pages as empty as me
[SOLO]
I cling to a hope that's beginning to fade
Trying to break the desolation I hate
But until we unite
I live for that night
Wait for time
Two souls entwine
In the break of new dawn
My hope is forlorn
We will never meet
Only Misery and me
This is my final call
My evenfall
Drowning into time
I become the night
By the light of new day
I'll fade away
Reality cuts deep
Would you bleed with me