Von Stackelberg (2009)

Performative Space and Garden Transgressions in Tacitus' Death of Messalina
Author(s): Katharine T. von Stackelberg

Source: The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 130, No. 4 (Winter, 2009), pp. 595-624
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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PERFORMATIVE SPACE AND
GARDEN TRANSGRESSIONS IN TACITUS'
DEATH OF MESSALINA
KATHARINE T. VON STACKELBERG
Abstract. This article considers the role of gardens inTacitus Annales Book 11
as
performative and transgressive space. Tacitus' account posits garden space as
a nexus of narrative uncertainty between historia and fabula. This relationship is
considered in the context of the transformative potential of performative space
and concludes that the narrative interaction between gardens, transgression, and
transformation both reference and foreshadow Julio-Claudian mythic enactments
and the politics of performance.
"The play-as-text can be

performed in a space, but the play-as-event
to the space, and makes the space perform as much as itmakes
belongs
the actors perform." ?Wiles 2003,1
This article considers the role of gardens as performative

and transgressive space in Tacitus Annales Book 11. The execution of
Messalina in theHorti Luculliani is the climax to one of themore sensa
tional episodes of Tacitus' Annales (11.26-38). Until recently,much of the
critical analysis of this episode focused on the more prominent aspects
of this cause c?l?bre; Messalina's bigamous marriage to Silius and the
attempted palace coup that followed have been interpreted as a response
to dynastic insecurity,nymphomaniac passion, or the fabrication of hostile
sources.1 Overwhelmed by salacious details, the gardens of Tacitus' narra
tive appear tangential. Despite observations on their cultural value, they
1
Scramuzza 1940,90-94, sees the marriage and conspiracy as a consequence ofMes
salina's unbalanced lusts. Levick 1990, 64-67, considers Messalina's sexual conquests as a
tactic for political dominance and self-protection, rather than clinical nymphomania. Bauman
1992,166-79, presents a detailed exposition of Messalina's manipulation of Roman law in
obtaining the Horti Luculliani and possible justifications for the conspiracy. Barrett 1996,
91-44, presents Messalina's actions as a possible response to the emergence of a strong
pro-Agrippina faction. Joshel 1997 analyses the hostile tradition of Messalina's sexuality as
a sign of tension between concepts of empire and gender, manifested by the political vis
ibility of imperial wives. Rutledge 2001,105-10,147-48,246-48, focuses on Messalina's use
of informers during Asiaticus' trial and her subsequent ruin by being informed against.
Hopkins UniversityPress
American JournalofPhilology 130 (2009) 595-624? 2009 byThe Johns
596 KATHARINE T.VON STACKELBERG
are generally regarded as an element of scenic colour, a topographical

detail contributing to the verisimilitude of a dubious account.2 Victoria
Pagan recently noted that the Horti Luculliani in Tacitus' account are
"gardens of transgression," providing Messalina with a location for her
unauthorised execution, but the internal logic of Tacitus' denouement is
even more complex and subtle.3
In what follows, I argue that the prominence of the Horti Lucul
account reflects itshistorio-topographical
liani inTacitus' importance and
indicates thatMessalina's acquisition of the site followed an established
Julio-Claudian policy that connected garden space with imperial power
(section 1). Tacitus' subsequent account of the conspiracy and Messalina's
transgressive action introduce a deliberate ambiguity as to whether his
narrative is historia or fabula and makes garden space the nexus of this
narrative uncertainty (section 2). The relationship between gardens and
fabula is then considered in the context of performance, and the transfor
mative potential of performative space as schematized by Victor Turner
(section 3).The narrative interaction between gardens, transgression, and
transformation is further explored in a final section that considers the
implicit presence of Dionysus and the politics of performance in Julio
Claudian mythic enactments (section 4).
Tacitus' synthesis between contemporary topographical politics, gar
den transgressions, and performative space in his account ofMessalina's
ruin concentrates the reader's attention on the Horti Luculliani. Their
narrative presence is usually attributed to thewell-documented rhetorical
trope whereby luxury estates were correlated with feminized pleasure
and self-gratification.4 There is a satisfying moral symmetry to the tale;
Messalina, indulging her every desire, overreaches herself to become the
victim of her own excess, dying in the gardens she herself has killed for.
The Horti Luculliani, however, have a topographical prominence com
mensurate with their rhetorical value, and it is here that we begin.
2 1998 as symbol of luxury.

See Beard 1998 on their moral ambiguity, Boatwright
Pagan 2006, 70-87, contrasts Messalina's death with the Stoic death of Thrasea Paetus
and notes, but does not explicate, the transgressive nature of garden space. Rutledge 2001,
106-7, considers them a red herring.
3
Pagan 2006,66,86-87.
4
Edwards 1993,138-49; Boatwright 1998.
PERFORMATIVE SPACE AND GARDENS INTACITUS 597
1.HORTI LUCULLIANI: HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY,

AND IMPERIAL POWER
Created between 66 and 63 B.C.E., the Horti Luculliani had a series of

distinguished owners. Built by L. Licinius Lucullus with the spoils from
hisMithradatic campaign, theywere popularly associated with sumptuous
leisure enjoyed by Lucullus in his retirement (Plut. Luc. 39). By 25 B.C.E.,
the gardens were owned by the urbane M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus
V 90), who acquired them either through purchase or bequest
(PIR1
from Lucullus' son Lucius. Corvinus was first cousin once removed to
M. Valerius Messalla Barbatus, Messalina's father, yet the Horti Lucul
liani did not stay within this branch of the gens Valeria. Instead they
were obtained by D. Valerius Asiaticus, possibly through the agency of
his sister-in-law Lollia Paulina whose grandmother was either Corvinus'
wife or her sister.5Messalina subsequently annexed the estate, and upon
her death it passed into the imperial fiscus.
The Horti Luculliani were located on the Pincian Hill, near the
modern Piazza del Pop?lo, on a site now occupied by part of the grounds
of the Villa Medici and the convent of Trinit? dei Monti. The arcades
of theAqua Virgo, starting a little to the north of the via Salaria Vetus
(now the via Francesco Crispi and the via di Porta Pinciani), formed the
southernmost limit of the Horti Luculliani (Front. Aq. 22.2). Recovered
cippi indicate that the gardens occupied an area of some 20 to 25 hectares
in the course of their history, surviving into the sixth century as papal
property.6
The estate was considered to be among themost lavish and costly
gardens of imperial Rome (Plut. Luc. 39.2). This reputation is corrobo
rated by the excavations of the ?cole Fran?aise de Rome, undertaken
from 1981 under Henri Broise and Vincent Jolivet.7These confirmed the
existence ofmonumental terracing, extravagant water features, and stately
garden pavilions. Broise and Jolivet conclude that the Horti Luculliani
were remodelled on at least two occasions. The first improvements took
place between 15 and 20 C.E., when the water system was redesigned
5Syme 1986,176-78,230-32.
6Steinby1993-2003, vol. 3,67-68.
7
Reports of the excavation project of the Horti Luculliani, initiated in 1981 by the
?cole Fran?aise de Rome, appeared annually inMEFRA 1985-2001, but a comprehensive
survey of the results has yet to be published. A summary of the site can be found in Broise
and Jolivet 2001, 471-76, and a study of the specific water features in Broise and Jolivet
1998,189-202.
to accommodate increased quantities supplied by the Aqua Virgo and

Aqua Marcia. A monumentalstructure, reminiscent in its terracing and
apsidal bay of the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste, was also
completed during this period.8 The second phase of alterations dates from
the late 40s, the period ofValerius Asiaticus' ownership. Tacitus does not
describe the remodelling in detail, only noting that itwas of "outstanding
splendour" (insignimagnificentia, 11.1.1), but finds from thisperiod include
the remains of an impressive monumental nymphaeum and evidence of
yet another expansion to the water system.
The Horti Luculliani were a focal point formutual observation and
a landmark in both the physical topography and social hierarchy of the
city.Their visual impact is apparent even in the sixteenth-century maps
of Pierro Ligorio and Leonardo Bufalini, on which themonumental ter
racing of the gardens can still be discerned.9 Set apart from the dense
cluster of hills that made up the centre of regal and republican Rome,
the elevated and extensive nature of the site on the Pincian Hill set up a
powerful visual dynamic between occupants and observers. Excavations
of the "Temple" structure indicate that the curved portico with a circular
structure at the top was constructed along the same axis as Augustus'
Mausoleum, creating, according to Coarelli (1983,200-206), a visual rela
tionship between the two sites. From its slopes, residents of the garden
were offered a superb view down onto the monuments of the Campus
Martius, while in turn residents of the city could not fail to be aware of
the massed greenery and impressive pavilions of the Horti Luculliani.
Through their size, elevation, and location, the Horti Luculliani had a
significant presence on the cityscape. Yet Asiaticus' improvements to the
site constituted more than an example of elite conspicuous consumption.
His occupation of the Horti Luculliani infringed perilously on imperial
practice, provoking a lethal response from Messalina. Messalina's pros
ecution of Asiaticus removed a powerful figure from imperial politics.10
8Pierro Ligorio originally made the connection between the sanctuary to Fortuna
and the monumental structure in the Horti Luculliani; see Steinby 1993-2003, 3, 68-69.
on to the site, but that it could
Ligorio may have projected his contemporary perceptions
be made at all underscores the impact of the site on the viewer.
9
See Steinby 1993-2003, vol. 3,404-5.
10This case was notably intimate. Not only was Messalina on her own ground, her
influence consolidated through alliances with key members of the imperial household
(Narcissus, Pallas, and Callistus), but both prosecutor and defence were her accomplices.
P. Suillius Ruf us, who had already acted forMessalina in the prosecution of Caligula's sister
Livilla, prosecuted (Dio 60.8.5; Tac. Ann. 13.43.3). Lucius Vitellius, leader of the senate and
Valerius' defense counsel, had a close, quasi-sexual relationship with Messalina (Suet. Vit.
Asiaticus' threat lay not only in his influence with theRhine army he was
accused of subordinating but also with his domestic prominence, reified
in his possession of the Horti Luculliani.
In 47 CE., the Horti Luculliani were the most prominent garden
estate within the city boundaries not owned by the imperial family.The
transference of elite urban gardens from aristocratic to imperial space
was emblematic of Julio-Claudian dominance. During the last century of
the republic, many gardens were established in the environs of Rome as
an elite focus for competitive display. Substantial sites were associated
with leading families of the period.11 Nevertheless, their desirability was
also a liability.During the protracted periods of civil unrest that char
acterized the late republic, many were targeted in the proscriptions of
Sulla and the second triumvirate (Plut. Sulla 31.5-6; Cic. Phil. 8.9). These
appropriations were motivated as much by the political value of the land
as itsmaterial value. John D'Arms (1998, 34-38) and Mary Boatwright
(1998,73-75) have both noted that elite republican Horti had been used
for demonstrations of political power by Pompey and Caesar. The Horti
Pompeiani and Horti Caesaris Transtiberim were both used as campaign
ing grounds to gain and consolidate popular support. Pompey used his
Horti as the site of a mass rally to pay his electorate their voting bonus,
and Caesar invited the plebs urbana to a public feast in his gardens when
celebrating his Spanish triumph.12 Such access suggested both genial
hospitality and autocratic largesse. Unlike the cities of Hellenistic kings,
such as Pergamon, Rhodes, and Alexandria, late republican Rome had
no established public parks. Access to elite gardens provided both host
and visitor with a mutually beneficial experience. The visitor temporarily
shared and enjoyed an elite space where, unlike other assembly areas of
Rome inwhich generations of monuments competed against each other,
everything that the visitor to the garden saw and experienced focused
on one man alone, the owner.
2). Trials in cub?culo principis were a characteristic feature of Claudius' reign, although their
ubiquity may have been exaggerated by hostile sources; see Rutledge 2001,106, n. 112.
11
E.g., Horti Ap[r]oniani: CIL VI 671. Horti Drusi: Cic. Att. 12.21.2,12.22.3,12.23.3,
12.25.2, 12.31.1, 12.37.2, 12.38.4, 12.41.3, 12.44.2. Horti Lamiani: Cic. Att. 12.21.2, 12.22.3
(not to be confused with imperial property of the same name on the Esquiline, joined with
the Horti Maiani: CIL VI 8668, 6152). Horti Cassiani: Cic. Att. 12.21.2. Horti Siliani: Cic.
Att. 12.22.3,12.25.1,12.27.1,12.30.1,12.31.2,12.33.1,12.35.1,12.41.3,12.44.2,12.52.2. Horti
Clodiae: Cic. Att. 12.38.4,12.41.3,12.43.2,12.44.7,12.47.1,12.52.2,13.26.1,13.29.3, Cael. 36.
Horti D. Iunii: Cic. De Am. 1.
12Plut. Pomp. 44; Val. Max. 9.15.1; AE 1950, 93. For a detailed discussion of the
political benefits to Caesar of this epulum publicum, see D'Arms 1998.
As contested spaces between imperial and aristocratic interests,

themost prestigious Horti of Rome inevitably fell into the hands of the
Julio-Claudian dynasty.13The Horti Sallustiani on the Quirinal and Pin
cian hills were imperial property from the early years of the principate.
The Horti Maecenatis on the Esquiline were bequeathed toAugustus in
8 B.C.E. and became the residence of Tiberius (Suet. Tib. 15). Caligula
subsequently added theHorti Lamiani etMaiani and his mother's gardens,
theHorti Agrippinae, to the imperial domus.,14
This process of acquisition was not merely the result of property
being concentrated in imperial hands through marriage and legacies; it
was also part of Julio-Claudian practice, initiated byAugustus, that gener
ated an association between urban greenspace and imperial power.15 As
Rome's first public park, Caesar's bequest of his Transtiber Horti to the
people of Rome generated popular support for his heir. In turn,Augustus
ensured that his garden and residence on the Palatine, the groves of his
mausoleum, and the shrine and grove of his grandsons Lucius and Gaius
(the nemus Caesarum) were either open to the public or public property
(Suet. Aug. 50-51; Dio 54.27.3,54.29.4). Augustus' positive promotion of
Julio-Claudian greenspace was accompanied by a neutering of sites that
offered visual competition or associative resistance. Kathryn Gleason's
study of the Porticus Pompeiana (1994, 19-26) observed that, although
Augustus claimed to have respected the public monuments of Caesar's
opponents, he significantly altered Pompey's urban gardens. The spatial
significance of the Porticus Pompeiana, where the perspectives guided the
eye of the visitor from the Curia, through the portico garden, directly to
the heart of the theatre surmounted by the Temple ofVenus Victrix, was
negated in 32 B.C.E. when Augustus disrupted the unity of this view by
constructing a permanent stone scaena that separated temple and theatre
from the garden. Pompey's Curia, the senatorial body having been moved
by Caesar to a new site in the Forum, was converted into public latrines.
The Horti Pompeiani also passed into obscurity. Coarelli hypothesizes
that theywere redeveloped byAgrippa to create a monumental complex
13
Boatwright 1998,73-75; Beard 1998,29-32. Therefore, the literary representation of
these sites constitutes a new form of imperial self-representation; see Beard 1998, 24-27.
14 et Maiani: Philo Leg. 351;
Horti Sallustiani: Hartswick 2004, 11. Horti Lamiani
Suet. Cal. 59. Horti Agrippinae: Sen. De Ira 3.18; Tac. Ann. 15.44.
15
An association reflected in almost every artistic medium of his reign, from the picto
rial to the literary, see Castriota 1995,124-44 (the Ara Pacis); Kellum 1994 (architecture);
Kuttner 1999,10 (Primaporta paintings and Augustan statues); Spencer 2006, 243-50, 271
(literature of the Augustan period, particularly Horace).
that included the Baths ofAgrippa, the Pantheon, and the Saepta Iulia.16
Such a development effectively replaced the memory of Pompey's mass
salutatio with structures that concretized theAugustan patronage of all
Roman citizens.
Hortiand imperial power were therefore a well-established con

ceptual dyad by the mid-first century CE.; Asiaticus' occupation of the
Horti Luculliani consequently gave him a highly visible presence in the
topography of the city.A man of clear and proven military and politi
cal ability, twice consul in 35 and 46 CE., with a strong power base in
Narbonese Gaul and with the Rhine armies, Asiaticus was a man who
bore watching. A native ofVienne, Asiaticus was from a relatively young
branch of theValerii. His family, prominent members of theAllobroges
tribe, had obtained citizenship fromValerius Flaccus in approximately 80
B.C.E.17Although unable to claim a venerable patrician, or even Roman,
heritage, his Gaulish roots were more than compensated for by his wealth,
connections, and reputation. Valerius Asiaticus had implicated himself in
the assassination of Caligula, and it seems not improbable that he hoped
to assume an ever more influential role in its aftermath (Jos.AI 19.157;
Dio 59.30).
The timing of Messalina's case is significant. In 46 CE., Asiaticus
was persuaded to resign his consulship on the somewhat specious grounds
that his office was provoking envy among his peers (Dio 60.27). While
the details of the matter are opaque, it seems that he was the subject of
a high degree of political tension; Tacitus' account stresses that he was
both clarus and famosus throughout the city of Rome and its provinces
(11.1.2). Coming so soon after his aborted consulship, Asiaticus' improve
ments to the Horti Luculliani provided both a legitimate outlet for his
energies and an opportunity for prominent self-display.
The splendour, site, and conceptual associations of theHorti Lucul
liani offered an ostensible privatus a stage for self-presentation in the
imperial mode. Fragments of the monumental nymphaeum introduced
during this second remodelling of theHorti Luculliani depict eagles and
other insignia of Jupiter. The imperial overtones of this iconography
16Coarelli 1977, 816-17, supported by Royo 1999, 24-55. Alternatively, an inscrip

tion from the early first century C.E. from the columbarium of the Statilii suggests that
the Horti Pompeiani became the property of T Statilius Taurus {CIL VI 6299); see Jolivet
1983,131-15. If Jolivet is correct, the gardens became imperial property through Agrip
pina's agency in 53 C.E.
17Pauly-Wissowa 7 A.i, s.v. Valerius 106; Woolf 1998, 163-65, 242-43; Ebel 1976,
94-95.
have led Broise and Jolivet to hypothesize that the fountain celebrated
the completion of Claudian water projects. Nevertheless, they also allow
for the possibility thatAsiaticus himself opportunistically commissioned
the nymphaeum in the aftermath of Caligula's assassination (1998,199).
Within the context of the Horti Luculliani, this combination of fluvial
and military elements would have suggested both Asiaticus' command
of the Rhine army and his role as kingmaker. Tacitus' emphasis on the
Horti Luculliani as a motivation forMessalina's prosecution ofAsiaticus
is explicated by the politically sensitive status of this garden. Given these
factors,Valerius' death is not a caprice of the horticulturally minded Mes
salina but the excision of a potential dynastic threat.18That Asiaticus was
represented to Claudius as such is evident from the fact that the charge
was laid by his son Britannicus' tutor, Sosibius (11.1.2).
In the Annales, Messalina's acquisition of the Horti Luculliani
not only suggests her affinity for Lucullan luxury and excess but also
establishes a correlation between her influence and despotic power. An
enduring anecdote associated Lucullus with Xerxes, the quintessential
absolutist monarch, since both shared a passion for landscaping (Pliny
HN 9.170; Plut. Luc. 39.3). With their hilltop position and unobstructed
view of the Campus Martius, the gardens articulate a statement of sur
veillance and control on the part of Messalina. The Horti Luculliani
concretize her political influence on the social topography of Rome and
signal her inversion of gender norms. In theAnnales, Messalina's demise
is presented as the inevitable consequence of her ungovernable sexual
desires and transgressive lust formasculine power.19 The acquisition of
the Horti Luculliani marks the start of her fatal transgressions.
18Tacitus' continued interest inAsiaticus' descendants reflects the politically sensitive

nature of the Rhine command; see Koestermann 1963-68, 25-26. Asiaticus' son uses it to
provide military support to Vindex in 68 CE. (Tac. Hist. 1.59, 2.94).

19Tacitus' characterization of Messalina as an uncontrolled sexual aggressor was
perpetuated by Pliny HN 10.172; Dio 61.31.1; Juv. 6.115-32 and 10.333 Cf. 14.331. Joshel
1997,226-30, has written the authoritative article on subject. Wyke 2002,321-90, traces the
and cinematic and of these attacks on Messalina's sexual
literary reception propagation
character. Yet, as Mary Beard 1998, 26-27, has demonstrated, Tacitus' use of inhio to sig
nify covetousness forHorti indicates a desire not for feminine sexual gratification but for
masculine articulations of power, of which the occupation of monumental gardens is one
aspect. Inhio ismost commonly found in the context of gold and goods (TLL 7.1.1594.31),
and the number of examples that link inhio directly with sexual desire is limited (e.g., Lucr.
DRN 1.36; Apul. Met. 5.23,5.27,7.21). An association with oral sex has been detected in the
appearance of inhio during the trial of Asiaticus, followed by reference to an os impurum

to
(Tac. Ann. 11.3); see Joshel 1997, 228, 235. The mouth in question, however, belongs
Vitellius not Messalina.
2.UNCERTAIN NARRATIVES:
HISTORIA AND FABULA, GARDENS AND GAPS
The Horti Lucullianiappear to be employed as a framing device for

Messalina's actions, signifiers of both the zenith and nadir ofMessalina's
influence. The fragmentary nature of Book 11 problematizes any attempt
to assert a definitive structure on Tacitus' narrative, yet the prominence
of gardens inBook 11 cannot be due tomere coincidence. In the absence
of a determinate structure, one must look to the intratextual integrity of
Tacitus' narrative, the relation of detail to the extant whole as it unfolds
for the reader.20 In the text of theAnnales that remains, Tacitus not only
maintains the thematic trifecta of gardens, imperial prosecutions, and
suicide for the deaths of Statilius Taurus and Thrasea Paetus (12.59,16.34)
but also restages a marriage "performance" in a garden context (15.37,
discussed in section 4). The prominence of theHorti Luculliani in Book
11 must therefore constitute a deliberate (if incomplete) narratological
strategy.The first three chapters of Book 11 establish Messalina's influen
tial role in imperial government, with possession of theHorti Luculliani
reifying her control over domestic affairs. In the latter half of Book 11
(11.26-38), the Horti Luculliani witness Messalina's loss of control in a
conspiracy against Claudius.
This conspiracy centres on the apparent marriage ofMessalina to
her lover, the consul-designate Gaius Silius. Tacitus narrates the follow
ing chain of events. In the autumn of 48 C.E., Silius proposed marriage,
and Messalina, after some initial reservations, accepted. The couple
waited until Claudius leftRome to perform religious duties inOstia and
then celebrated their wedding (11.26-27). Having turned against Mes
salina, Narcissus arrived inOstia to denounce her. Fearing an imminent
coup, Claudius' party set off for Rome to secure the Praetorian Guard
(11.28-31). Back inRome, Messalina celebrated a vintage festival. Upon
learning that Claudius was returning, the revellers split up. Messalina
retired to theHorti Luculliani and Silius to the Forum. Silius and other
participants in the wedding and subsequent revel were arrested. Mes
salina, recognising the gravity of the situation, walked down from the
gardens and traversed the city on foot, boarding a cart at the start of
the Ostian road (11.32.6).
The two parties met on the Ostian road. After a heated exchange
between Messalina and Narcissus, Messalina was removed on the
20As defined by Sharrock 2000, 3-5.
understanding that she would be given a hearing at the Emperor's dis

cretion (11.33-35). She returned to theHorti Luculliani to compose her
appeal. Narcissus took Claudius to Silius' house near the Forum to display
evidence thatMessalina and Silius had been cohabiting. Then they went
to the Praetorian camp, where Silius and eight other associates of Mes
salina's were executed (11.35-36). Claudius returned to the palace and
ordered Messalina to present herself the next day. Narcissus, worried that
she might present a plausible case in her defence, took drastic action and
ordered Messalina's execution in Claudius' name. In the Horti Lucul
liani,Messalina attempted suicide, failed, and was put to the sword. Her
body was left in the garden in the care of her mother (11.37). Claudius
received the news of her death with equanimity, Narcissus was rewarded
with an honorary quaestorship, and Messalina's name and image were
systematically removed from sight (11.38.4).21
The mystery at the heart of the narrative resides not with the ques
tion of whether Messalina really married Silius22 but with the deliberate
ambiguities inTacitus' presentation of events. Nowhere is this obfuscation
clearer than in his reportage of the wedding night itself. In this section,
Tacitus' active intervention with regard to his reader's credulity plays
with the boundaries of historical believability (11.27):23
Haud sum visum iri tantum ullis mortalium securitatis

ignarus fabulosum
fuisse in civitate omnium gnara et nihil reticente, nedum consulem desig
natum cum uxore principis, die, adhibitis qui obsignarent, velut
praedicta
liberorum causa convenisse, atque illam audisse
suscipiendorum auspicum
verba, subisse, sacrificasse apud deos; discubitum inter convivas, oscula
noctem actam licentia coniugali. sed nihil compositum
complexus, denique
miraculi causa, verum audita scriptaque senioribus tradam.
I am not unaware seem that, in a community

it will fantastical privy to
everything and silent about nothing, there were any mortals who felt so
secure. Still less, that on an appointed day, and before invited signato
21
For deliberate damage toMessalina's portraits, constituting damnatio memoriae,
see Varner 2001; Flower 2006,184-88.
22 can be seen in the most
Discussed by Fagan 2002. The difficulty of the marriage
recent treatment of the conspiracy by Rutledge 2001,106 and 148, who ignores the marriage
and instead sees Messalina's "abortive coup d'?tat" as a construction of Agrippina's devis
to the debate are Barrett
ing to justify a delatio laid by Narcissus. Significant contributors
1996, 91-94; Bauman 1992,166-79; Levick 1990,64-67; Griffin 1984,27-29. Commentaries
on the Annales accept the validity of the marriage as part of a conspiracy: Furneaux 1907,
39-53; Koestermann 1963-1968, 85-108.
23
On Tacitus' ambiguities, see O'Gorman 2000,1-4,44-45,115-16; Pagan 2006, 85.
ries, a consul designate and the Emperor's wife should have been joined
in formal if they were in the business of beget
together marriage?"as
she should have listened to the officiant's words,
ting children"?that put
on the bridal veil, sacrificed to the gods; that the pair should have taken
places at a banquet, embracing in their kisses, and finally consummated
the night as man and wife. But I shall record nothing thathas been made
up for sensationalist purposes but things thathave been heard and handed
down men.
by older
In part this is a result of his Thucydidean heritage: alerting the reader to

the problems of historicity only to fall back on the weight of tradition. It
is, after all, the duty of the sceptical historian to separate the false from
the true, fabula from historia.24 Tacitus' disclaimer abdicates his autho
rial responsibility while deferring the veracity of his claim to unspecified
traditional authorities, and to the judgement of the reader. The distinc
tion between historia and fabula ultimately rested on the psychological
plausibility of the event described; historia recorded events "according to
nature," fabula depicted events "against nature."25As with other forms of
Latin rhetoric, subjective plausibility trumps objective veracity. Tacitus'
discourse o? fabula therefore serves to introduce the performative aspect
of this episode. By interjecting his own voice into the narrative, Tacitus
asks the reader for a suspension of disbelief, introducing the mythic
and dramatic elements that permeate the subsequent narrative.26 Act
ing as his own chorus, Tacitus leads the reader from the rationalism of
historiography and into the inherently unreliable discourse of theatrical
performance and dissimulatio.
As a historian, Tacitus brings in the suspicion o? fabula only to refute
it and reinforce factuality; as a writer, his conflation of historia and fabula
necessarily creates a credibility gap that destabilizes his characters in the
events that follow thewedding. Rendered inchoate, the conspirators dash
in confusion from one location to another, theirmotivations unclear, their
actions inexplicable, their goals unrealized. With this technique, Tacitus
24Tacitus' disclaimer disarms belief in this story, preventing a larger loss of histo
riographie credibility, and asserts his rhetorical control over a dubious account; see Pagan
2006, 72-73. Yet its very ambivalence contributes to the well-documented mendacity of
ancient historians; see Wiseman 1993.
25
A distinction based on Servius' commentary on Aeneid 1.235 and discussed by
Wiseman 1993,126-31.
26Santoro L'Hoir 2006,83-89 notes that Tacitus deploys terms relating to ignorance,
uncertainty, and knowledge as part of the process of rhetorical transference from

history
to theatre.
foregrounds the one stable and continuous element in thewhole episode:

garden space. At this point in the text, the topographical significance of
garden space has been foreshadowed by Asiaticus' attempt to reify his
urban dantas through the Horti Luculliani. As Tacitus' characters lose
their intelligibility, garden space assumes a central role in the ensuing
drama, mediating the credibility gap between historia and fabula by
occupying a corresponding gap in the historiographie narrative.27
A core tenet of ancient historiography was that geographical
descriptions should add psychological plausibility to the events described.
In his preface to the Histories, Tacitus articulates the interrelation of
historiography and geography; his geographical emphasis on the prov
inces of Rome and the nations of the world underscores the loftiness of
his subject (Hist. 1.2.1). By comparison, in the Annales, Tacitus laments
that heroic geography has no place in a dynastic history composed not
of epochal foreign campaigns, but of tawdry domestic affairs (in every
sense of the word; 4.33.3):
nam situs varietates clari ducum exitus retinent ac

gentium, proeliorum
animum; nos saeva iussa, continuas accusationes,
redintegrant legentium
fallaces amicitias, perniciem innocentium et easdem exitii causas coniungi
mus, obvia rerum similitudine et satietate.
For [accounts of] the locales of tribes,fluctuatingbattles and the glorious

are what ours is one
deaths of generals grip and stimulate readers' minds; of
savage edicts, unremitting accusations, false friendships, the ruin of innocents,

and always for the same reasons, stymied by monotony and surfeit.
Nevertheless, although the subject matter of the Annales restricts the

scope for heroic geography, the domestic emplacement of events con
veys cultural meaning.28 Spatiality in the Annales reflects a diminishing
sense of expectations; instead of foreign plains, camps, and towns,Tacitus
focuses on the city itself,on individual buildings, and into their very rooms,
inverting the heroic geography of military accounts.29 The emplacement
of events leading toMessalina's death constitutes a debased version of
27 as a character, see Ash 2007, 211-24.

For a recent similar exploration of Rome
28
On history and geography, see Baker 2003, 18, 27, 109-29 (contemporary histo
1988, 183 (classical Krebs 2006 (recent analysis

riography); Woodman historiography);
and application of this technique in the Bellum Gallicum). For emplacement, see Foucault
1980, 69-71.
29For a similar historiographie technique in accounts of Tiberian Rome (Tac. Ann.
and the Domitianic of Flavian Rome, see Fredrick 2003,205-7.
4.69), panopticon
a heroic campaign, inwhich a dissipated Messalina and an asinine Clau

dius manoeuvre across the topography of the city.The military tone is
set when Messalina emerges from the Horti Luculliani to face Claudius
(spatium urbis pedibus emensa, 11.32.6). Emetior, the spatial or temporal
act of measuring out a length, is specifically used by Tacitus inmilitary
contexts that invariably conclude as failures. Emetior indicates forced
marches, negative reversals of fortune, and in the case of Servius Galba,
an inglorious end (Hist. 1.41, 3.21, 5.3; Ann. 16.16).30 The climax of this
quasi-military operation takes place on theOstian Road, when Messalina
hoves into view like an enemy force before being routed by Narcissus
(et iam erat in aspectu Messalina, 11.34.3).31
Tacitus' subversion of heroic geography is accompanied by a cor
responding glorification of domestic topography. The whole episode is
saturated with movement between various locations in and around Rome.
The following table breaks down the spatial structure of the episode into
its constituent parts (see Table below). Schematizing Tacitus' use of place
illustrates two significant aspects of the account. The first is the strong
presence of the Horti Luculliani, the social significance of which has
already been established. The second isTacitus' use of spatial ambiguity
to connect two important, related events: the wedding and the vintage
ceremony. In contrast to the precision exhibited elsewhere in the account,
Tacitus never states exactly where these celebrations occurred. Since his
detailed specification of place contributes to the episode's verisimilitude,
the lack of specificity focuses the reader's attention on this gap in the
narrative.32
Tacitus locates both events in spatial lacunae, yet in a way that

promotes an association between them and the garden space that is such
a dominant topographical feature of Book 11.Although Tacitus does not
give the exact location of thewedding, his contemporary, Juvenal, has the
marriage of Messalina and Silius consummated in a garden, indicating
that place and event were linked in popular imagination (Juv. 10.334).
30
TLL 2.480.34 s.v. emetior. The only time Tacitus does not use emetior in a military
context is found in the marvelous arrival of Serapis inAlexandria, although the context of
forcible acquisition maintains Tacitus' consistently negative application of the verb (Tac.
Hist. 4.84).
31
Koestermann 1963-68,100, identifies this as the pivotal moment.
32The inclusion of cumulative detail was a common technique of pseudo
documentarism; see Ni Mheallaigh 2008. Tacitus' abstention from locative detail at the
crucial juncture of wedding and celebration paradoxically emphasises the quality o? fabula
that would nominally be refuted by appeals to specificity.
Passage in
Scene Tacitus Dramatic Location
Wedding ceremony 11.27 Unspecified

Conclave of Narcissus, 11.28-29 Palace
Pallas, Callistus
Denunciation of Messalina 11.30-31 Ostia
Vintage festival 11.31 Unclear: per domum celebrabat
Dispersal of party 11.32 Messalina: Horti Luculliani

Silius: Forum
Petition to Claudius 11.32 Procession fromHorti Luculliani
toOstian Gate
Confrontation with 11.34 Ostian Road
Narcissus
Denunciation of Silius 11.35 Silius' house: in vest?bulo

Execution of conspirators 11.35-36 Praetorian camp
Messalina composes appeal 11.37 Messalina: Horti Luculliani
Claudius: Palace
Death ofMessalina 11.37-38 Horti Luculliani
Tacitus gives the vintage festival slightly more locative detail (adulto
autumno simulacrum vindemiae per domum celebrabat, 11.31.4), but it is
unclear whose domus accommodates the event. Koestermann, following
Furneaux, understands domus as referring to the house of Silius, but it
could also refer to the domus that was the imperial palace (11.28.1).33
The revel takes place outdoors, since Tacitus includes the seemingly
inconsequential detail that Vettius Valens climbs a tree during the fun
(11.31.6). The cumulative effect of these details encourages the reader to
associate the wedding celebration with an imperial garden.34
Since Tacitus does not name the exact locations, the reader's atten
tion is drawn to the implicit intratextual association between garden
and event. Both wedding and vintage festival are linked temporally by
their sequence in the narrative, spatially through theirmutual atopia and
33Koestermann 1963-1968, 96; Furneaux 1907, 45.

34A good candidate is the Horti Maecenatis, an imperial garden on the Esquiline
situated adjacent to the vineyards on itswestern slope. For a reconstruction of the environs
of the Horti Maecenatis, see Wiseman 1998,15-16. The most comprehensive study of this
garden isH?uber 1990.
euphonically by wordplay between adultus/adulter (Messalina's adultery,

emphasized at 11.26.1 and 5).35These three points of connection encourage
the reader to group thewedding and vintage together in garden space. Nor
is this a singular instance of intratextual technique in theAnnales. Andrew
Laird (2000,143-46,153-61) has noted thatTacitus' account of the deaths
of Petronius, Seneca, and Lucan also demonstrates a technique of narra
tive interplay within the text to promote unspoken connections among
three separate suicides (16.18-19,15.62-63,15.70.1,17.17.4). Intratextual
reading connects the wedding and vintage celebration with garden space;
the emphatic presence of the Horti Luculliani, already established as a
politically charged site, indicates that the emplacement of events within
a garden context is not an arbitrary detail. Messalina's acquisition of the
Horti Luculliani initiates a series of social transgressions, culminating in
her unauthorised murder, that are all located within garden space. The
narrative movement from the concrete topography of the Horti Lucul
liani to the conceptual associations of garden space reinforces Tacitus'
transition from historia to fabula, and it is in the conceptual realm of
fabula that gardens and performative space meet.
3. PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMATIVE SPACE:

MEDIATING CRISIS
Tacitus' interjection that thewedding ofMessalina and Silius might appear

fabulosus to the reader suggests not only fictive status but also theatri
cal performance. Although Tacitus' employment of dramatic technique
has long been a source of comment,36 it is notably overt in the account
ofMessalina's downfall. Not only does Tacitus employ theatrical terms;
the events are also marked by performative actions and contextualized
within performative garden space.
Tacitus presents the relationship between Messalina and Silius
35Tacitus' use of adultus may also have provided his readers with the pleasure of
homonymous wordplay. Adolesco has a homophonic relationship to adoleo and can also
be applied to sacrificial activity (TLL 1.800.72-75 s.v.
adolesco). The latter "misreading" is
perfectly congruent with the events described, conveying both sacred activity (the ritual
of marriage) and impending doom (the trees of the Horti Luculliani have already been
witness to Asiaticus' funeral pyre, 11.3.2). Note also that the wordplay in this passage is
reinforced by strong alpha-alliteration (at, alias, adultus, autumnus).
36
Santoro L'Hoir 2006,1-8, on "the long scholarly tradition" of theatre and
tragic
performance in Tacitus; see also 222-37, on Tacitus' use of "theatrical metaphor" within
historiography and the conceptual links between garden and theatre space.
almost entirely in the language of dramatic performance, as an act of

dissimulatio?1 The use of simulacrum, cothurnos, and chorus to describe
the vintage festival emphazises the theatrical element, further eliding
the distinction between historia and fabula. Following the revel, the
dramatic theme is sustained when Messalina embarks on a new kind of
performance (11.32.6):
atque interim, tribus omnino comitantibus?id repente solitudinis erat?
spatium urbis pedibus emensa, vehiculo, quo purgamenta hortorum eripi

untur, Ostiensem viam intrat nulla cuiusquam misericordia quia flagitiorum
deformitas praevalebat.
Meanwhile, with only three companions?so was she deserted?

rapidly
she walked from end to end of the city.Then she started along theOstian
Road, in a cart used for carrying away garden rubbish. There was no pity
for her, for the baseness of her shameful deeds prevailed.
As Corbeill has indicated (2004,126-33), the physical acts of descent

and walking both have performative significance. Rank and elevation
are twin concepts in Roman society; Latin uses gradus to convey both
meanings. Messalina's descent from the heights of the Horti Luculliani,
an unsubtle indication of her imminent fall from grace, is framed and
phrased as the removal of garden waste (purgamenta hortorum, 11.32.6).
Messalina's apogee of power, marked by acquiring theHorti Luculliani
fromAsiaticus, has been diminished by degrees until only the power to
commandeer a garden cart is left.38
Her reversal of fortune is underscored at the Ostian gate when
she boards the garden cart. Here Tacitus uses eripio, a verb that often
signifies the forcible seizure of property.39 In this context eripio both
calls attention toMessalina's earlier expropriation of the Horti Lucul
liani and foreshadows her eviction through death. Walking, too, conveys
meaning. The semiotics of walking was an integral part of the rhetorical
repertoire, communicating not only character but also the inherent valid
ity and veracity of a case.40 In a culture as intensely visual as Rome's,
37
Indeed, since dissimulatio technically indicates that something is not what it ap
pears to be the Bacchic revel is given an added layer of ambiguity.
38The choice of vehicle also underscores themock-heroic geography and quasi-mili
tary tone suggested by emetior (see n. 30 above). Messalina was the only woman inRoman
history at that date ever to have taken an official part in a triumph; in 43 C.E. she rode in a
carpentum during Claudius' triumph for the conquest of Britain (Suet. Claud. 17).
39TLL 2.788.73-84, 789.16-790.64 s.v. eripio. Joshel 1997, 231-32.
40E.g., Cic. De Off. 1.131, Sest. 105, Phil. 13.4.
the physical movements of high-status men were the focus of a public

who inferred meaning through observation. By walking, Tacitus has
Messalina appropriate a masculine, political mode of communication
to publicly broadcast her feminine, domestic situation. Even in crisis,
Messalina subverts gender norms. Her transgressive intermixture of
public and private modes of behaviour is reiterated in the conclusion of
Tacitus' account when he stresses the public and private extent of her
epigraphic and figurai punishment (nomen et effigiesprivatis ac publias
locis demovendas, 11.38.4).
The detail of Messalina's transport?the garden cart?highlights
the emphasis that the account puts on garden space. The Roman garden
was neither wholly public nor private; instead, itmediated between the
domestic interior and venues of public life, functioning as a space of
transition. Like many man-made spaces, the Roman garden was a mate
rial expression of the rule systems that govern legitimate and illegitimate
access and encounter within a society. Yet, since gardens mediate the
transition between interior and exterior, the rules that govern modes
of behaviour within a garden are more elastic than the rules governing
spaces that do not possess transitional dynamics. For this reason, gardens
can function as "heterotopias of deviation" (Foucault
1986), acceptable
venues for social transgression that offer a degree of permitted licence.41
It is as a venue for social transgression that gardens function as perfor
mative space, with which they have a long historical and cross-cultural
identification.42
As the term suggests, performative space ismore than a passive
location for the staging of a play or ceremony; it is also a space that facili
tates specific ritual actions and utterances in order tomediate moments
of societal crisis, usually rites of passage.43 Victor Turner's schema of per
formative actions identifies four key stages of these "social dramas": an
initial breach of normal process, followed by the critical transgression of
boundaries, leading to redressive action or utterance, and concluding with
the resolution of crisis and r?int?gration of social cohesion.44 The agency
41
For example, London's Vauxhall gardens, opened in 1732, offered a public venue
for feasting, gambling, and entertainment, encouraging both social and sexual intercourse;
see Nosan 2002,101-21; Brown 1999, 39-41.
42
For the interconnection between gardens, ritual, and performative space, see
Conan 2007a and 2007b.
43
Appropriately enough, given the context of this article, one paradigmatic example
of a performative utterance is the declaration of assent during the marriage ritual; "I do"
has a transformative power as simultaneous statement and action; see Austin 1965.
44Turner 1986, 34-38, 74-76.
of performative space enables the performative to become transforma

tive.Rites of passage, rites of affliction, triumphal processions, all of these
require an appropriate performative space in order to effect their social
transformation. In Tacitus' account, the emphasis on theHorti Luculliani
and gardens presents the reader with a performative space inwhich to
contextualize Messalina's apparently uncoordinated actions. Each of the
key stages has an association with garden space. Messalina's breach of
marital chastity is followed by a transgressive marriage and celebration
in a garden. Her descent from the Horti Luculliani and transportation
in a garden cart to confront Claudius on the Ostian Road initiates the
process of redressive action. But at this point, the process stalls, blocked
by Narcissus. Messalina is prevented from any utterance thatmight re
establish social equilibrium. Her voice is literally and figuratively cut short
during her second attempt at redressive action as she composes her appeal
in the Horti Luculliani. The performative schema is disrupted, and with
it the normative order of government; she is executed in the garden not
by imperial fiat but by a freedman's unauthorized command.45 Instead of
acting as a mechanism for introducing and resolving crisis within a society,
the performative dimension ofTacitus' account underscores the narrative's
lack of resolution. Messalina's "social drama" is emblematic of a wider
crisis of confidence within the Claudian regime; yet her transgressions
within garden space serve not tomediate the crisis but rather to intensify
it.Messalina's garden transgressions are the precursor forNero's excesses
and the ultimate dissolution of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
4.DIONYSIAC FABLES, POLITICAL MASQUES
Studies ofMessalina's character and role in Julio-Claudian historiography

usually analyse her in relation toAgrippina, who fills the power vacuum
left by Messalina's death.46 The similarities and contrasts between Mes
salina and Agrippina inTacitus' account are clearly expressed, but what
is less overt is the intertextual relationship between Messalina and Nero,
45
Seneca, no friend toMessalina, insists that she was condemned without due process
because of her affair with Silius and suggests that the plot was a palace conspiracy led by
Narcissus, with the possible complicity of Claudius, to eliminate Messalina (Sen. Ap. 10).
Yet Tacitus, who would have been aware of Seneca's opinion in the Apocolocyntosis, does
not reflect Seneca's certitude as to the authors and victims of events; see Baldwin 1964,
40-44.
46E.g., Barrett 1996,94-98; Levick 1990,64-67; Bauman 1992,168-70,178-81; Gins
berg 2006,17-24,126-30.
who are connected by their respective garden marriages. Messalina's

marriage performance foreshadows Nero's similarly transgressive mar
riage (15.37):
est ratem cui superpositum convivium

igitur in stagno Agrippae fabricatus
navium aliarum tractu moveretur. naves auro et ebore distinctae, remigesque
exoleti per aetates et scientiam libidinum componebantur. volucres et feras
diversis e terris et animalia maris Oc?ano crepidinibus

abusque petiverat.
adstabant inlustribus feminis completa et contra scorta
stagni lupanaria
visebantur nudis iam gestus motusque obsceni; et postquam
corporibus.
tenebrae incedebant, quantum iuxta nemoris et circumiecta tecta consonare
cantu et luminibus clarescere. ipse per licita atque inlicita foedatus nihil
flagitii reliquerat quo corruptior ageret, nisi paucos post dies uni ex illo
contaminatorum grege(nomen Pythagorae fuit) in modum sollemnium
coniugiorum denupsisset. inditum imperatori flammeum, missi auspices,

dos et genialis torus et faces nuptiales, cuneta denique spectata quae etiam
in femina nox operit.
Then on
Agrippa's lake, a raft was constructed so that the party could be
placed upon it and towed by other ships.The vessels having been outfit
tedwith gold and ivory,pathic oarsmen were arranged according to their
age and sexual expertise. He had also requisitioned birds and animals
from distant lands and even creatures from the Ocean. On the embank
ments of the lake stood brothels filledwith noble ladies, on the opposite
side naked whores could be seen. Already there were obscene poses and
gestures, and when darkness fell every nearby grove and the surrounding
houses resounded with song and blazed with light. As for Nero himself,
defiled by acts both permissible and proscribed, it seemed that therewas
no disgraceful deed he forsook in his quest for degradation. Except that
after a few days he took one man name was from that
(his Pythagoras)
gang of perverts and celebrated a in the most solemn manner,
wedding
with thisman as the husband. A bridal veil was placed on theCommander
in Chief, officials were admitted, there was a a bed and
dowry, marriage
torches, and finally the whole was seen which even in the case
nuptial thing
of woman is veiled by night.
The high degree of congruence between Messalina's wedding to

Silius and Nero's wedding to Pythagoras forms a narrative dyad.47 The
garden environs of the Stagnum Agrippae constitute a set of nested
allusions to Messalina's Horti Luculliani. Edward Champlin (2003,
47 a more
For detailed analysis of this episode, see Champlin 2003,153-77; Wood
man 1998, 168-89; on Baiae, see Cic. Cael. 35; Sen. Ep. Mor. 51.1-4; Plut. Luc. 39.3; Tac.
Ann. 11.1.3.
614 KATHARINE T. VON STACKELBERG
156-60) has observed that revellers on the banks of Agrippa's artificial

lake are suggestive of the same crowds at Baiae, the hedonistic resort
that attracted a Lucullan reputation for excess. Baiae was also the site
of Lucullus' most
lavish estate, and the site of Valerius Asiaticus' arrest.
Nero and Messalina are further connected by a allusion to
conceptual
Xerxes, with Nero dominating and altering Rome's (un)natural topog
raphy to create the appearance of dry land on a man-made body of
water.48 Both parties participate in transgressive marriages associated
with festivals and ritual performance. Nero's marriage takes place dur
ing the Saturnalia, Messalina's during the autumn vinalia. In turn, each
shares aspects of the other's ritual context: Messalina's marriage makes
Silius a pseudo-Saturnalian "king for a day," while Nero brings a Dio
nysiac wilderness, complete with wild animals from distant lands, into
urban Rome (volucres et feras diversis e terris et animalia maris Oc?ano
abusque petiverat, 15.37.5).
The figure of Dionysus permeates both accounts. Tacitus' presen
tation of the vintage festival as a Bacchanalia introduces the unsettling
numen of Dionysus. Technically, Jupiter and Venus
presided over the
Rustica Vinalia (Ovid Fast. 4.863-900), but Messalina's celebration is
characterized by all the hallmarks of a Dionysiac thiasos (Ann. 11.31):
at Messalina non alias solutior luxu, adulto autumno simulacrum vindemiae
per domum celebrabat. urgeri prela, fluere lacus; et feminae pellibus accinc
tae adsultabant ut sacrificantes vel insanientes Bacchae; ispa crine fluxo
thyrsum quatiens, iuxtaque Silius heder? vinctus, gerere cothurnos, iacere
caput, strepente circum procaci choro.
But Messalina had never a freer rein. It was the

given voluptuousness
high Fall and she was celebrating an imitationwine harvest throughout
the grounds of the house. Presses were being trodden, vats flowed; beside
them skin-girtwomen were bounding likeBacchanals excited by sacrificeor
delirium. She herselfwas therewith dishevelled tresses and waving thyrsus;
at her side was Silius, crowned with ivy,sporting buskins and tossing his
head, a wanton chorus all around.
resounding
Presenting Messalina as a maenad emphasises her transgression of social

norms, already evident in her aspiration tomasculine authority. She is a
chaotic figure, blurring social distinctions in her choice of lovers, eliding
48Hdt. 7.34-37. Nero's actions also parallel Caligula's, who created dry land on water
with a bridge of ships at Baiae (Suet. Cal. 19) and also owned an extravagant ship with an
artificial garden (Suet. Cal. 37).
the identity of Emperors with her polyandry.49 The Graeco-Roman world

had a long tradition of casting maenadism as a subversive articulation of
female sexuality, despite its established role in civic ritual.50The Roman
senate, alarmed by the conspiratorial potential of unmonitored outdoor
rituals and promiscuous intermingling of sexes and classes, suppressed
cultic maenadism in 186 B.C.E. (Livy 39.8-19).51 Tacitus' sleight of hand in
presenting a Roman vintage festival as a Dionysiac thiasos is reinforced
through the garden mise en sc?ne. Garden space is transitive; itmarks
boundaries, encourages movement between outside and inside and medi
ates the conceptual division between thewild and the cultivated. For these
reasons, it is traditionally associated with Dionysus, the god of wilderness,
liminality, and crossing boundaries.
This conceptual association with Dionysus is reflected within the
material context of Roman gardens, primarily in the form of sculpture
and oscilla.52 Figures of Dionysus and members of his Bacchic entourage
have been found inRoman gardens in every conceivable combination of
drinking, revelling, sleeping, and sexual pursuit.53 These images not only
highlighted the garden's convivial opportunities and its atmosphere of
sensuality, they also referenced the conceptual wilderness of garden space.
Another common garden ornament were oscilla, decorative roundels or
dramatic masks hung from the boughs of trees or the lintels of a peristyle.
Traditionally thought to have originated as Bacchic dedications (Virg.
Geor. 2.387-89), theywere usually decorated with theatrical or Dionysiac
motifs.54 Suspended between heaven and earth, marking the threshold
between domestic interior and cultivated exterior, oscilla exhibited an
apotropaic, votive, and divinatory value that underscored the garden's
association with liminal, transitive space.
49
Even altering her own identity by taking on the role of a whore with a Greek
name during her sexual marathons (Juv. 6.125).
50Goff 2005,264-79; Henrichs 1978,155-59.
51Gruen 1992,258-59; Evans 1991, 28-29; Bauman 1992,35-40.
52
Grimai 1969,317-30, describes them in detail. Jashemski 1979,123, n.51, disagrees
with his main conclusion that Dionysiac themes were a conscious articulation of cultic
sensibility.
53
So, for example, on the grounds of the Villa of the Quintilii, one finds, all together,
child satyrs playing with lion skins and dramatic masks, in addition to several statues of
Silenus in various stages of inebriation, Bacchantes awake and sleeping, and herms and
busts of Dionysus; see Neudecker 1988,47-51,192-95.
54Their actual origins are considerably more obscure; the etymology, "little mouth,"
suggests a divinatory function, but literary and material evidence reflect a consistent associa
tive connection between oscilla, trees, and garden spaces; see Taylor 2005, 83-84, 88-93.
616 KATHARINE T VON STACKELBERG
The narrative transition from traditional Roman festival to

Diony
siac bacchanal not only mirrors Tacitus's transition from historia tofabula,
and the shift in focus from the Horti Luculliani to garden space, it also
exports the account from the immediate political events of 47 C.E. into
the broader dramatic context of Euripides' Bacchae.55 The detail ofVet
tiusValens, climbing a tree during the festivities in unconscious anticipa
tion of the fatal denouement, has clear parallels with Pentheus' unlucky
observation of the Dionysiac thiasos.56 The Bacchae is concerned with
disparities between perception of truth and reality, the necessity of self
knowledge, and the prophylactic value of ritual trangressions.57 Pentheus
interrupts ritual with disastrous consequences, compromising the safety of
his kingdom and resulting in his death, and Tacitus' narrative establishes
a similar interruption in the performative schema ofMessalina's "social
drama." The destructive political consequences of that interruption are
Claudius' marriage toAgrippina and his adoption of Nero as heir.
Tacitus' presentation of the marriage of Messalina and Silius as
a dramatic performance is consistent with Julio-Claudian
practice that
joined mythic performance with political content. With Silius in the role
of Dionysus, Messalina is implicitly enacting the role of Ariadne.58 The
myth ofAriadne was a popular subject in both literature and art from the
late first century B.C.E. and is consistent with both the political context
of the Julio-Claudian principate and the internal semantics of Tacitus'
account.59 As with so much else inTacitus, Ariadne's story is an ambigu
ous one. On one level her story is an account of triumph; she exchanges
the lesser husband for the greater and achieves apotheosis (Ovid Her.
10, Ars Am. 1.527-64). Yet the process of exchange is involuntary; she
is abandoned and is both the author and victim of her infidelity (Cat.
64). Tacitus' narrative does not explicitly claim thatMessalina had been
abandoned by Claudius, but it does indicate that Claudius extended his
visit toOstia longer than had been expected (longa apud Ostiam Caesaris
mora, 11.29.3). From that point on, Messalina is subject to a cumulative
55
Nor was this the first literary transfer between historical Rome and mythic Thebes;
see Janan 2007,107; Feldherr 1997,41-44, 51-53; Hardie 1990.
56Eur. Race. 814-15,953-54, also discussed by La Penna 1975; Santoro L'Hoir 2006,
235-36.
57
See Feldherr 1997 for a detailed discussion of the political and performative con
text of Euripides' Bacchae as framed within Ovid's Metamorphoses. Ovid's formulation of
Acoetes/Dionysus' vow focalizes the narrative tension between historia and fabula {tarn
vera . . . quam veri maiora fide 3.658-60).
58A possibility originally voiced by Colin 1956, 34-38.
59
On the popularity of Ariadne in Italy, see Fredrick 1995, Richardson 1979.
series of abandonments: first (and most critically) Narcissus, then the

revellers, and finally her supporters. There is a notable emphasis on her
isolated state when she descends from the Horti Luculliani (id repente
solitudinis erat, 11.32.6). In the context of Tacitus' account, Messalina's
masque ofAriadne's triumph is a failed performance: instead of achiev
ing apotheosis it has effected her abandonment.
There was a political precedent for Messalina's adoption of a
mythic persona: Augustus and Livia's masquerade of the Olympians, the
dodekatheos where Octavian appeared in the guise of Apollo. This ban
quet, held in 39 or 38 B.C.E., may have celebrated the betrothal of Livia
and the not-yet-august Octavian, heralding the reconciliation between
Caesarian and Optimate factions (Suet. Aug. 67-70). The perceived
sexual and theatrical overtones of the banquet provoked scandal, but
itwas probably intended as an early foray into the establishment of a
personal iconography that sought to position Octavian as an alternative
toMarc Antony, already acclaimed in the East as the returning Diony
sus.60Therefore, Tacitus' presentation of Antony's great-granddaughter
as Dionysus' divine consort prompts recognition of a legitimate divine
association. The opprobrium attached toAntony had long been neutral
ized by his descendants' thorough assimilation into the reigning dynasty.
In adopting theAriadne persona, Tacitus' Messalina embodies a genuine
claim towards the kind of divine honours already accorded to other impe
rial women, but apparently withheld from her by Claudius.61 Messalina's
initial acquisition of the Horti Luculliani was driven by political and
dynastic concerns, and her subsequent garden performance reflects this
political dimension. The Bacchic performance in theAnnales alludes to
her dynastic relationship to the gods whose divine favour had established
Julio-Claudian power, heightening the shock of her execution that signals
the start of the dynasty's final disintegration.
The ascendancies of Messalina and Nero are therefore connected
by their shared dynamics of performance and their Dionysiac associa
tions.Tacitus presents Messalina as engaged in the kind ofmythologizing
tableaux that were particularly prominent among the Julio-Claudians,
60The notissimus lampoon inspired by the incident accused Caesar's son of hiring a
choragus to choreograph a re-enactment of divine peccadilloes. The alleged ostentation of

this private banquet, held during a period of famine and general hardship, also provoked
a public outcry (omne frumentum deos comedisse, Suet. Aug 70.2); see
Flory 1988; Pollini
1990,344-45; Barrett 2002, 25-26.
61Livia: Ceres/Augusta; Antonia: Venus Genetrix/Kore; Agrippina: Ceres/Cybele;
see Wood 1992, 232-34.
618 KATHARINE T. VON STACKELBERG
correlating to the increasing absolutism of imperial government and

exemplifying the princeps' absolutist power to turn myth into reality.62
Tacitus' narrative staging of events within garden space blurs the distinc
tion between real and represented. Messalina's performance can therefore
be read as a precursor to Nero's, whose stage debut in 59 CE. was on a
private stage built within his Horti and whose first lyric composition was
titled Attis, or The Bacchantes (Tac. Ann. 14.15, Dio 62.20.1).63 Nero's
subsequent roles as Hercules furens and Oedipus rex were received by
his audience as authoritative actions and utterances that transformed
representation into reality (Suet. Nero 21). Yet, as both Messalina and
Nero (and Pentheus) discover, in the presence of Dionysus, a garden
performance that starts with transformation can metamorphose into
destructive delusion.64
7. CONCLUSION
Although the final lines of Book 11 are corrupt, they are generally
read as honesta quidem, sed ex quis deterrima orerentur [tristitiamultis]
(11.38.4). Honesta is an unusually positive choice within this context; what
does Tacitus find in his account ofMessalina's death that appears to be
so intrinsically becoming? Is it the destruction of her
image? Claudius'
ignorance of her death? The manner of her death (she cannot even com
mit suicide like a decent woman)? Its location in the Horti Luculliani?
The text does not specify an answer, but Dio, who based his work closely
on that of Tacitus, was in no doubt that gardens lay at the heart ofMes
salina's downfall (61.5).
Exploring Tacitus' conceptual synthesis between gardens, contem
porary topographical and dynastic politics, Dionysiac transgression, and
performativity provides a connecting thread through the labyrinth of
ambiguity and confusion that characterize Messalina's downfall. The
acquisition of the Horti Luculliani establishes a correlation between
62Coleman 1990, 60-66, cites examplesof executions in the guise of the immola
tion of Hercules (Tert. Apol. 15.5), Orpheus torn apart by wild beasts (Mart. De Spect. 24,
25), and Pasiphae coupling with her bull (Mart. De Spect. 6), with non-fatal punishments
administered in the role of a self-castrating Attis (Tert. Apol. 15.5), and Mucius Scaevola
burning off his hand (Mart. Ep. 8.30,10.25).

63
See also Suet. Nero 11.1; Dio 61.19; Pliny HN 37.19.
^Santoro L'Hoir 2006, 89-97, observes that the limitations of knowledge are an
integral part of tragic discourse, noting in particular Claudius' ignorance of Messalina's

affairs and the threat to his own children from Agrippina.
her influence and despotic power, yet itwas also an act of dynastic self
preservation. Given the topographical significance of theHorti Luculliani,
its ownership by Asiaticus threatened imperial practice. Her marriage to
Silius and the vintage celebration are garden events, and even her jour
ney on the Ostian Road is facilitated by the garden's surrogate, the cart.
Although the spatial dynamics of the account subvert the usual tropes
of heroic geography, the focus on garden space, and its narrative elision
between historia and fabula, foreground themes of social, political, and
mythic performance that contextualize Messalina's death within thewider
historiographical scheme of the Annales. The emphasis on the Horti
Luculliani and gardens presents the reader with a performative space in
which to contextualize Messalina'sapparently uncoordinated actions. The
Dionysian allusions
emphasize the degree to which the Julio-Claudian
dynasty has degenerated from the autocratic glories of the Augustan
age to the timorous delusions of the Claudian and, as Tacitus concludes,
itwas the harbinger of worse to come. Messalina's garden performance
foreshadows the unbalanced theatrics of Nero and the ultimate collapse
of a dynasty whose lastmember was cremated, perhaps not coincidentally,
in a garden on the Pincian hill (Suet. Nero 50).65
Brock University
e-mail: kvonstackelberg@brocku.ca
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Performative Space and Garden Transgressions in Tacitus' Death of Messalina

Author(s): Katharine T. von Stackelberg

KATHARINE T. VON STACKELBERG

transformation both reference and foreshadow Julio-Claudian mythic enactments

and the politics of performance.

"The play-as-text can be

This article considers the role of gardens as performative

1992,166-79, presents a detailed exposition of Messalina's manipulation of Roman law in

are generally regarded as an element of scenic colour, a topographical

2 1998 as symbol of luxury.

1.HORTI LUCULLIANI: HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY,

Created between 66 and 63 B.C.E., the Horti Luculliani had a series of

to accommodate increased quantities supplied by the Aqua Virgo and

As contested spaces between imperial and aristocratic interests,

(literature of the Augustan period, particularly Horace).

Hortiand imperial power were therefore a well-established con

16Coarelli 1977, 816-17, supported by Royo 1999, 24-55. Alternatively, an inscrip

18Tacitus' continued interest inAsiaticus' descendants reflects the politically sensitive

provide military support to Vindex in 68 CE. (Tac. Hist. 1.59, 2.94).

appearance of inhio during the trial of Asiaticus, followed by reference to an os impurum

The Horti Lucullianiappear to be employed as a framing device for

20As defined by Sharrock 2000, 3-5.

understanding that she would be given a hearing at the Emperor's dis

Haud sum visum iri tantum ullis mortalium securitatis

I am not unaware seem that, in a community

In part this is a result of his Thucydidean heritage: alerting the reader to

uncertainty, and knowledge as part of the process of rhetorical transference from

foregrounds the one stable and continuous element in thewhole episode:

nam situs varietates clari ducum exitus retinent ac

For [accounts of] the locales of tribes,fluctuatingbattles and the glorious

savage edicts, unremitting accusations, false friendships, the ruin of innocents,

Nevertheless, although the subject matter of the Annales restricts the

27 as a character, see Ash 2007, 211-24.

1988, 183 (classical Krebs 2006 (recent analysis

a heroic campaign, inwhich a dissipated Messalina and an asinine Clau

Tacitus locates both events in spatial lacunae, yet in a way that

Wedding ceremony 11.27 Unspecified

Dispersal of party 11.32 Messalina: Horti Luculliani

Denunciation of Silius 11.35 Silius' house: in vest?bulo

33Koestermann 1963-1968, 96; Furneaux 1907, 45.

euphonically by wordplay between adultus/adulter (Messalina's adultery,

3. PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMATIVE SPACE:

Tacitus' interjection that thewedding ofMessalina and Silius might appear

almost entirely in the language of dramatic performance, as an act of

atque interim, tribus omnino comitantibus?id repente solitudinis erat?

spatium urbis pedibus emensa, vehiculo, quo purgamenta hortorum eripi

Meanwhile, with only three companions?so was she deserted?

As Corbeill has indicated (2004,126-33), the physical acts of descent

40E.g., Cic. De Off. 1.131, Sest. 105, Phil. 13.4.

the physical movements of high-status men were the focus of a public

of performative space enables the performative to become transforma

4.DIONYSIAC FABLES, POLITICAL MASQUES

Studies ofMessalina's character and role in Julio-Claudian historiography

46E.g., Barrett 1996,94-98; Levick 1990,64-67; Bauman 1992,168-70,178-81; Gins

who are connected by their respective garden marriages. Messalina's

est ratem cui superpositum convivium

diversis e terris et animalia maris Oc?ano crepidinibus

coniugiorum denupsisset. inditum imperatori flammeum, missi auspices,

The high degree of congruence between Messalina's wedding to

156-60) has observed that revellers on the banks of Agrippa's artificial

at Messalina non alias solutior luxu, adulto autumno simulacrum vindemiae

caput, strepente circum procaci choro.

But Messalina had never a freer rein. It was the

Presenting Messalina as a maenad emphasises her transgression of social