Essay: Fagan’s (2002) article “Messalina’s Folley”

Fagan’s (2002), article “Messalina’s Folley”, is a historical work that explores the fall from grace and ultimately leading to the execution of Messalina, the third wife of Emperor Claudius. The article offers key insights into the history of Rome in the second half of the AD 47 and constitutes dramatic episodes during the Julio-Claudian era. The article also adopts different narrative techniques characterized by verbal and written testimony from Tacitus’s perspective in relation to the events surrounding Messalina’s fall. In this article, Fagan (2002) presents different key themes which contribute to the historical understanding of Rome and helps the readers gain insights to the events surrounding the fall. The article presents the fall of Messalina based on her romantic relationship with Silius, a consul-designate in Rome who is placed in a difficult position to divorce his wife and accept the emperor’s wife (Fagan, 2002). The author also succeeds in demonstrating the theme of adultery and key misdemeanors through the characters of Messalina and Silius. Their affair was characterized by the lack of discretion and moral values. Fagan (2002) also makes extensive reference to the theme of adultery throughout the article, which helps to understand the personalities of the characters. Other than these reoccurring ideas, he also uses the theme of power and demonstrates how it impacts the relationships between the leaders and their subjects such as the relationship between the emperor and the people. Fagan (2002) uses the power theme to exemplify how leaders abuse their positions and their subjects. The best example of such is the case of Messalina who forces Silius to divorce his wife and places him in an extremely unfavorable and testing position of accepting her despite being the emperor’s wife.
Fagan (2002), provides a historical presentation of the leadership and society relations in Rome enhancing the readers understanding of how the leaders related with their subjects. Additionally, he demonstrated the social problems which have existed and endured since historical times such as the slavery practice. The author provides key insights into the leadership challenges that occurred in those periods and offers the readers an enhanced and increased understanding of the Roman empire and the reign of emperor Claudius. This article makes a significant contribution to the understanding of Rome’s social values, and the eventual fall of Messalina, the emperor’s wife. The article also draws attention to the theme of leadership as it relates to the different characters. The article continues to unfold the various ways leadership impacted their own personal performance. Throughout the article, a clear reference is made to the capabilities and capacities of the leaders in regard to significant and non-significant decision-making of the leaders through the case of the emperor presenting his skills and values.
Fagan (2002), adopts different narrative techniques to facilitate and contribute to the understanding of the events described in the article such as the use of verbal and written testimony of the elders. The narrative offers a chance to provide a brief recap of the events surrounding the fall as well as demonstrate the strong aspects and weakness among the leaders. The narrative technique also offers an opportunity to ensure the readers effectively understand the underlying issues and the dramatic episodes in the Julio-Claudian era. The narrative technique adopted by the author further offers insights into the passive role demonstrated by Claudius throughout his reign. Fagan (2002) presents the argument that Claudius remained ignorant of Messalina’s events as he turned his attention to other matters. However, his restrained response demonstrated his leadership skills and ability to adopt critical thinking in complex situations. Additionally, the article demonstrates that Claudius behaviors and thoughts were perceived as pessimistic towards the habitual response by emperors with beliefs of different conspiracies (Bowersock, Brown & Grabar, 2001).
Fagan (2002) additionally focuses on educating the readers and persuading them on specific issues. The article identifies historical aspects such as slavery and stereotypes related to the female gender that engulfed most of the societies across the world. Alternatively, the article uses the written testimonies and verbal information which promotes the quality and reliability of the information shared. Fagan succeeded in effectively presenting a recap of the events within the reign of emperor Claudius. Fagan’s (2002) article is also characterized by the heavy stylized nature of Tacitus accounts. This offers insights into how historians have literary talents as displayed in different passages within the article. The literary talents further help historians to orchestrate the events to their benefits. The stylized nature of the article helps comprehend how the author presents the character of Claudius as pliancy base on his actions, presenting the notion that he could change his mind any time. However, the focus of the article remains centered on Messalina’s fall caused by her indiscretions (Gill, 1983).
Fagan’s (2002) article makes key insights into the imperial history and exemplifies the Roman beliefs and ideologies such as the adultery practice as exhibited through Messalina’s fall. The verses and quotes relating to the relationship between Messalina and Silius provides the basis for the analysis and arguably helps to understand the moral story in the article and the historical reality. Silius episodes contribute immensely to the eventual fall of Messalina proving to be more reliable in understanding the intended argument of the author. Additionally, the article presents a literary view of the events contributing to the fall of Messalina and the impact of classical literary sources as demonstrated in Candaules story in Herodotus 1.7-12 (Marincola, 2010). The author demonstrates how the royal adultery as a key theme in this article is an enduring practice in the tradition. Consequently, it is evident that the traditional attitudes to women primarily those in power varied such as stereotypes inclusion and respect problems. The dramatic artistry exhibited in this article does not present a historical accuracy on the attitudes towards women which can help in effectively understanding the position. However, the author adopts a moderate view influenced by the literary skills and dramatization of the events presenting the account of Messalina’s fall (Bowersock, Brown & Grabar, 2001).
According to  Fagan (2002), Tacitus presentation of Messalina’s fall is fully confirmed in other research studies and unlikely to be described as fiction based on the use of anecdotes or attitude towards women and dramatization of the events surrounding the fall. The author also uses other sources to demonstrate how they present different characters compared to Tacitus account. However, it’s evident that the sources come to an agreement on certain facts such as Messalina’s behavior and passion for Silius, marriage, and behavior towards former slaves. Many of these accounts are seen to be key aspects which contributed to her eventual fall and ultimate execution. The article cites key researchers such as Suetonius and Dio who rightfully argued that Messalinas fall was influenced by how she orchestrated the fall of Polybius, one of the imperial secretaries limiting the trust of the ex-slaves (Marincola, 2010). The researchers identified themes amalgamated with Fagan’s argument offer key insights into the broader tradition within the society and power influencing Claudius throne in Rome such as wives and political advisors. However, this aspect is a standard feature depicted by many historians overtime. In this regard, Tacitus accounts for the fall of Messalina is confirmed by the available evidence from other authors demonstrating the negative effects of moral failings and character flaws contributing to the eventual fall (Griffin, 1997).
The sources used and authors cited provides to the historical presentation by adversely demonstrating the social attitudes and values towards women and how they influence the fall of the existing leadership. Conversely, these interpretations further serve as the basis for the success of the leadership. The inclusion of different sources in this historical presentation helps in reducing conflicting interpretations and ensuring the research findings are based on key evidence. The consideration of different sources assist the author in ensuring that verifiable information is shared primarily relating them to the events of Messalina’s fall. This also demonstrates that Tacitus accounts are based on extensive research and presentation both in oral and written formats.
Presented throughout Fagans (2002) article are clear crucial insights into Messalina’s character and the interpretation of her fall based on ancient and modern historians. While the ancient historians relate her fall with moral aspects such as adultery practice, the modern sources associate her age with the negative behaviors presenting the notion that in her age she was allowed to engage in such behaviors. However, both the traditional and modern scholars on the topic agree that Messalina’s fall resulted from the bigamous marriage and adulterous lover. Additionally, the fall can be associated with the libidinous nature and actions as a product of Messalina’s madness while the behavior of Silius is entirely in character.  Murray & Goffart (1998), confirms that Messalina’s nature and behaviors influence her fall. An alternative view relies on the idea that Messalina’s had a cunning and wily nature in court politics and used sex as a political tool despite being in her early twenties. Messalina’s fall and character exemplify the level of disappointment in the Roman male expectations of powerful women which also relates to the modern interpretations of Claudian era.
According to Fagan’s (2002) article, Messalina’s used her gender as an advantage over the political rivals. However, the practices were instrumental in her fall since they were based on reckless passion and desires which also has political interpretations such as Silius desires to overthrow the emperor. The author places emphasis on the political interpretation of Messalina’s fall since her behaviors and actions were based on political reasons. This aspect demonstrates the political dimension as a key theme within the article. This dimension is also represented by the negative perception of Messalina by the ex-slaves and the political leaders as she attempted to bolster her insecure position. The author uses literary skills to achieve the reader’s attention in presenting key insights into Messalina’s fall. The emphasis on the irrational behavior as a result of Messalina’s actions are proven to contribute to her fall; however, the broader perspective exemplifies that her fall is based on a political act rather than a marriage affair only with Silius (Saller, 1980).
Based on the perspectives presented by the author in addition to other sources, it would not be in accordance to assume the historians biased due to the fact that they explore a different perspective of individual behaviors or actions, in example, a moral and political perspective in order to present the underlying issues influencing the behaviors. The case of Messalina’s fall demonstrates her willingness to affect her moral behaviors in order to gain politically; however, the actions contribute to her fall rather than gain. The historians persuade the readers to explore beyond the usual understanding of the character behaviors and achieve this objective through the use of narrative techniques and literary styles such as dramatization. The use of the key styles offers a chance to shape the reader’s perception and present a detailed analysis of different cases to facilitate the readers understanding of the events (Althoff, 2002).
By reviewing Fagan’s (2002), article its evident that different historians treat the same theme or event differently based on their personal representation or approach to the evidence presented. For example, the adoption of moral and political aspects can influence how historians explain different themes or events. In the case of Messalina’s fall, historians adopt both moral and political aspects as the influencing factors. A similar approach to evidence is also evident between historians such as Tacitus as presented in Marincola (2010) article and Suet, Suetonius and Dio who focus more on the political aspects influencing Messalina’s behaviors and eventual fall.
Conclusively, the narrative adopted in this article acknowledges the dimensions of politics, adultery, moral values among other key themes which play a significant role in influencing individual behaviors and actions. The case of Messalina’s demonstrates the impact of political and moral aspects as the underlying motive for her marriage to Sillius. On the other hand, the character of Messalina’s demonstrates the political purpose of women in the Roman society as the basis for improving leadership and relationship between powerful individuals and their families.