VALERIA, a daughter of Messala Barbatus. She married the emperor Claudius, and disgraced herself by her cruelties and incontinence. Her husband's palace was not the only seat of her lasciviousness, but she prostituted herself in the public streets, and few men there were at Rome who could not boast of having enjoyed the favours of the impure Messalina. Her extravagancies at last irritated her husband, who commanded her to appear and answer all the accusations which were brought against her: upon which she attempted to destroy herself; and when her courage failed, one of the tribunes who had been sent to her despatched her with his sword. It is in speaking of her debaucheries and lewdness that Juvenal says,

Et laflata viris, necdum satiata, recefuit.

Her name has become a common appellation to denote a woman of shameful and inordinate lust.