Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (consul 58)

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 by

Nero II, and
Lucius Caesius Martialis

as Suffect consuls |  Consul of the Roman Empire

with Nero III,
followed by Gaius Fonteius Agrippa | Succeeded by

Aulus Petronius Lurco,
and Aulus Paconius Sabinus

as Suffect consuls