Victorious Valerians II

Back to the origin of 'valeria'...

Webster quotes Birley's suggestion that just as Claudius named his son 'Britannicus' in honour of the conquest of Britain, so he might have named the Twentieth legion 'Valeria' in honour of his wife. The idea that Valeria is from Valeria Messalina can in fact be traced back to 1719, and may have a certain merit, as we shall see, but Birley's logic is difficult to follow. The emperor Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus carried the honorific Germanicus of his father Drusus. Giving his son the name Tiberius Claudius Britannicus is entirely in keeping with custom (if declining it himself is less so). Naming a legion for his wife hardly fits in the same category (it would be a unique instance). However...

Claudius is the first emperor to give legions such an Imperial cognomen. The numerous legions 'Augusta' are named in honour of the emperor but do not take the imperial nomen (it ought perhaps to result in 'Julia' after his adoption, but the C Julius part was dropped from official nomenclature fairly early on). We have Flavia and Ulpia later, but the VII and XI Claudia are the first such. Given that this was an innovation on the part of Claudius, perhaps some sort of equivalent honour from the gens Valeria of his wife might not be impossible. The main difficulty is that we have a good context for the first and not for the second. But...

Valeria Messalina was related to Valerius Messallinus as the nomenclature suggests. In the absence of the final volume of PIR2, I'm not sure of current thought on the precise family relationship. Try following Wikipedia references to the family and you will find some contradiction (obviously I need to see Christian Settipani 2000 Continuité gentilice et continuité sénatoriale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale) but she could in fact have been the granddaughter of the M Valerius Messalla Messallinus who led legio XX to victory in Illyricum in AD6 and received Triumphal ornaments. The legion had an illustrious connection with the gens Valeria. Allowing the legion to take this name as a favour to his wife is perhaps something Claudius might have contemplated. Notable service in the invasion might have been sufficient impetus. It seems to have been the only legion involved to have no other designation.The subsequent disgrace and death of Messalina might have resulted in a certain reticence in its early useage, but the gens Valeria remained prominent in public life and a Valerius Messala was consul as late as 196.

It does seem to me that straining for an alternative explanation ignores the fact that the natural reading would be 'the Valerian legion' and that many people would have taken it as such at face value, indeed Cassius Dio does precisely that when referring to the legion in his Histories.