A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1052 MESSALLA. MESSALLA.
freedom- of the forum: was extinct; no great ment that at least protected life and property. If
public causes survived; the measures of the govern- he merited his own description of Dellius [DELment and the person of the. ruler were hazardous LIUS], a man who had danced through a revolution
topics, and the orator addressed not a mixed multi- (Sen. Suas. 1), he -atoned:for his compliance by his
tude, but a select audience. A scholastic spirit zeal in behalf of his friends (Plut. Brut. 53), by
was rapidly encroaching upon the province of elo- his encouragement of literary aspirants (Sen. Suas.
quence, and preparing the way for- the rhetorical 6), and by his intimacy with.the best and wisest
finesse of the later Roman schools. Messalla was men of his generation.
not chargeable with all the vices of the rhetoricians, Messalla's life forms the subject of several monobut neither had he retained the purity of the.pre- graphies, e. g. De Burigny, Al'inoires de l'Acad.
ceding age.- He was preferred to Cicero, and the des Inscript. xxxiv. p. 99 if.; D. G. Moller,
preference is. proof;of the incompetence of his Disputat. de M. Val. Corv. Messalla, Altorf.
critics. More smooth and correct than vigorous 1689, 4to.; L. Wiese, de M. Val. Alessall. Corvin.
or original, he persuaded rather than convinced, Vita et Studiis Doctrinae,.Berol. 1829, 8vo.; to
and conciliated rather than persuaded. - His health which add Ellendt. Proleg. ad Cic. Brut. pp. 131 —
was feeble, and the prooemia of his speeches gene- 138.
rally pleaded indisposition and solicited indulgence. 9. POTIT IS VALERIUS MESSALLA, was one of
(Quint. iv. 1. ~ 8; Dialog. de Orat. 17, 18, 21.) the supplementary consuls in B. c. 29. He was
Of his speeches the following titles have been probably father of No. 11.
transmitted: 1. Contra Aufidi7am (Quinct. x. 1. 10. M. VALERIUS M. F. M. N. MESSALLA
~ 22); 2, Pro Liburnia, of which there is a frag- BARBATUS, with the agnomen APPIANUS, was
ment in Festus (s. v. tabern); 3. Pro Pythodoro consul in B. c. 12, and died in his year of office.
(Sen, Contr. ii. 12, p, 171, Bipont. ed.); 4. Contra He was the father (or grandfather) of the empress
Antonii Literas (Charis. p. 103); and 5. DeAntonii Messallina [MESSALLINA, No. 1 ]; and Suetonius
Statuis (id. p. 80), both of which were probably (Claud. 26) calls him cousin of the emperor Claudelivered in B.c. 32, 31. Messalla mostly took dius I. Strictly speaking, however, he was cousin
the defendants' side, and was frequently associated only by marriage; and there is some difference
in causes with C. Asinius Pollio. (Quinct. Inst. of opinion as to the name of his wife. Lipsius
x. 1. ~ 24.) He recommended and practised (ad Tac. Ann. xi. 37) and Perizonins (Ep. ad
translation from the Greek orators; and his version N. Heins. Collect. Burmann. iv. pp. 801-802)
of the Phryne of Hyperides was thought to exhibit make Messalla to have married Domitia Lepida,
remarkable skill in either language. (Quinct. x. 5. daughter of Antonia major, and granddaughter of
s 2), Messalla was somewhat of a jurist in his M. Antony and Octavia. Claudius, son of Antodiction, preferring native Latinisms to adoptive nia minor, was therefore Domitia Lepida's first
Greek words: e. g. funambulus to schoenobates cousin, but Messalla's cousin only by marriage. The
(Schol. Cruqu. ad Itor. Sat. i. 10, 28), and archaisms following stemma will show their -respective relato novelties in expression and orthography. In tionship;-
the age of Domitian Messalla had become nearly M. Antony, triumvir,
obsolete; beside the gaudy ornaments and mea- married
sured declamation- of the rhetoricians, he appeared Augustus. ~
tame and insipid. (Sen. Excerpit. Contr. iii. Prooen..; i
Dialog. de Orat. 21; Meyer, Fragm. Or. Rom. p. Antonia major, Antonia minor,
208; Schott, d~e Rhet. ap. Sen. ilemor.) married married'2_08; Schott, de Rieot. ap. Sen. Aie osor.) m ariee L marid',....,.IL. Domitius Ahenobarbus. Nero Claudius Drusus.
His political eminence, the wealth he inherited I
or acquired in -the civil wars (Casaub. il- Pers. Sat. C.. Domitius Ahenobarbus. Domitilepi Claudius I,
ii. 71), and the favour of Antony and Augustus, M. Va. essarried
rendered Messalla one of the principal persons of Barbatus.
his age,- and an effective patron of its literature. Messalina,
(Quinct. xii. 10. ~ 11, 11. ~ 28.) -His friendship Claudius I.
for Horace (Od. iii. 21, Sat. i. 6. 42, 10. 29, 85,
S. P. 371) and his intimacy with Tibullus are Ryckius (ad loc. Tac.), on the other hand, and
well known. In the elegies of the latter poet, Brotier (Tac. Supleme. &tem7nm. Caes.), make two
indeed, even where he is not (as in elegies i. 7, iv. 1) Messallae Barbati, father and son, of whom the
the immediate subject of the poem, the name of elder married Marcella major, daughter of Claudius
Messalla is continually introduced. The dedication Marcellus, consul'B... 50, and Octavia, and the
of the "Ciris," a doubtful work, is not sufficient younger Domitia Lepida. (Dion Cass. liv. 28;
proof of his friendship with Virgil; but the com- Tac..Ann. xi. 37.)
panion of " Plotius and Varius, of Maecenas and 11. L. VALERIUS POTITI F. MESSALLA VOOctavius" (Hor. Sat. i. 10. 81), cannot well have LESUS, son probably of No. 9, was consul in A. D.
been unknown to the author of the Eclogues and 5, and afterwards proconsul of Asia, where his
Georgics. He directed Ovid's early studies (ex cruelties drew on him the anger of Augustus and
Pont. iv. 16), and Tiberius sought his acquaint- a condemnatory decree from the senate. Accordance in early manhood, and took him for-his model ing to Seneca, Messalla in one day decapitated- 300
in eloquence. (Suet, Tib. 70.) Some of Messalla's persons, and walked among the headless trunks ex-!on mots, which were highly relished by his con- claiming "a royal spectacle, and more than royal,
temporaries, have been handed down to us. (Sen. for what king ever did the like! " (Tac. Ann. iii.
Suas. 1, 2, 3.) He was a man well suited to the 68; Sen. de Ira, ii. 5; Fasti.)
era in which he lived. He was courtly, cautious, 12. M. VALERIUS M. F. MESSALLA, consul in
and serviceable to the government both abroad and A. D. 20, moved at the first meeting of the senate
at home; and his early passion for liberty easily under Tiberius, in A. D. 14, that the oath to the
subsided into reasonable acquiescence in a govern- emperor (sacraementunm) should for the, future be