Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger
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Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger was a senator of the Roman Republic.
He was praetor in the year of Cicero's consulship, 63 BC, and consul in 61, the year in which Publius Clodius profaned the mysteries of the Bona Dea, and Gnaeus Pompeius triumphed for his several victories over the Cilician pirates, Tigranes the Great and Mithridates VI of Pontus. Messalla, as consul, took an active part in the prosecution of Clodius. Messalla was censor in 55 BC.
As an orator, Messalla was thought to be respectable. In 80 BC he was engaged in collecting evidence for the defence in the cause of Sextus Roscius of Ameria. In 62 BC he solicited Cicero to undertake the defence of his kinsman, Publius Cornelius Sulla. And in 54 BC he was one of the six orators whom Marcus Aemilius Scaurus retained on his trial.
Messalla married a sister of the orator Quintus Hortensius, by whom he had at least one son, Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus. He was also the father of Valeria Messala, fourth wife of Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
[edit] References
- Asconius Pedianus, in Scaurian. p.20, Orelli
- Caesar, Bellum Gallicum, i.2.
- Cicero, ad Atticum, i.12, 13, 14; ad Familiares, viii.2, 4; Brutus, 70; pro Sextio Roscio, 51; pro Sulla, 6.
- Dio Cassius, Roman History, xxxvii.46;
- Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historis, vii.26, viii.54, xxxviii.2.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).
| Preceded by Decimus Junius Silanus and Lucius Licinius Murena |
Consul of the Roman Republic with Marcus Pupius Piso Frugi Calpurnianus 61 BC |
Succeeded by Lucius Afranius and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer |
