/ · 1894 Brewer’s · M · Messalina
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Wife of the Emperor Claudius of Rome. Her name has become a byword for lasciviousness and incontinency. Catherine II. of Russia is called The Modern Messaliʹna (1729–1796). (See Marozia.)
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.