2-880-271 - Shirley Markham Collection/Heritage Images

Messalina, 1895. 'Probably intended as one of the illustrations to the Sixth Satire of Juvenal', privately printed by Leonard Smithers. Messalina (died 48 AD) was the wife of the Roman emperor Claudius, and was notorious for her sexual appetite. In the "Sixth Satire", Juvenal describes her nightly excursions from the Imperial Palace to work as a whore in a local brothel. From "The Best of Beardsley" edited by R. A. Walker, [The Bodley Head, London, 1948]