Messalina Holding the Infant Britannicus, Louvre Ma 1224
A Roman marble of the empress Messalina carrying her son Britannicus, from Rome and now in the Louvre (Ma 1224). It shows her as the mother of an heir — the position from which everything she is accused of doing was worth doing, and the position she lost.
Messalina was executed in AD 48 on Claudius's order, after a marriage ceremony with the consul-designate Gaius Silius that the sources present as either adultery or an attempted coup, and probably could not distinguish. Her memory was condemned; her son was passed over for Nero five years later. This statue was made while the succession still ran through Britannicus, and it survives because it was quietly recut or simply left standing. See power, intrigue and scandal in the Claudian palace.
Public domain — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
