Manius Valerius Maximus Corvinus Messalla
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manius Valerius Maximus Corvinus Messalla, was Roman consul in 263 BC.
In this year, with his colleague Manius Otacilius (or Octaciius) Crassus, he gained a brilliant victory over the Carthaginians and Syracusans: more than sixty of the Sicilian towns acknowledged the supremacy of Rome, and the consuls concluded a peace with Hieron, which lasted the remainder of his long life, and proved equally advantageous to both Syracuse and Rome the honour of a triumph was decreed to him alone. He alone was awardes a triumph De Paeneis et Rege Siculorum Hierone.
His relief of Messana obtained him the cognomen Messalla, which remained in the family for nearly 800 years. To commemorate his Sicilian victory, he caused it to be pictorially represented on the wall of the Curia Hostilia the first example of an historical fresco at Rome. He is said also to have brought the first sundial from Catana to Rome, where it was set up on a column in the forum.
Messalla was censor in 252 BC, when he degraded 400 equites to aerarians for neglect of duty in Sicily.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).
