Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (consul 58)

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Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus[1] was a Roman Senator who lived in the Roman Empire in the 1st century. He might have been the brother of empress Messalina.

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

Corvinus was a member of the Republican gens Valeria. Corvinus was the namesake of the Senator and Augustan literary patron Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus.[2] He may have been a son of the Senator and consul Marcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messalinus, who was a son of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus,[3] or possibly the son of the consul Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus and Domitia Lepida the Younger, thus making him the brother of Valeria Messalina, the third wife of the emperor Claudius.[4]

Political career[edit]

In 46/47AD, Corvinus was a member of the Arval Brethren. From January to April in 58AD, he served as an ordinary consul with the emperor Nero[5] and then from May to June in 58AD, as a suffect consul with Gaius Fonteius Agrippa.[6] Starting with his consulship, he was granted an annual half a million sesterces to maintain his senatorial qualifications.[7]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Biographischer Index der Antike, p.979
  2. ^ Lucan, Civil War
  3. ^ Paterculus, The Roman History, p.127
  4. ^ Lucan, Civil War
  5. ^ Shotter, Nero
  6. ^ Der Neue Pauly, Stuttgart 1999, T. 12/1 c.1110
  7. ^ Tacitus, Annales xiii.34

Sources[edit]

  • Tacitus, Annals of Imperial Rome
  • D. Shotter, Nero (Google eBook) Routledge, 2012
  • Lucan, Civil War (Google eBook), Penguin, 2012
  • Velleius Paterculus – Translated with Introduction and Notes by J.C. Yardley & A.A. Barrett, The Roman History, Hackett Publishing, 2011
  • Biographischer Index der Antike (Google eBook), Walter de Gruyter, 2001
Political offices
Preceded byas Suffect consuls Consul of the Roman Empire
58
with Nero III,
followed by Gaius Fonteius Agrippa
Succeeded byas Suffect consuls