Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus

For other individuals with this name, see Marcus Valerius Messalla (disambiguation).

Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus (c. 104/3 - 26 BC), was a Roman politician, and consul in 53 BC.

Family

Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus was the son of an otherwise unknown Marcus Valerius Messalla and Hortensia (sister of the consul of 69 BC). He had a sister named Valeria Messalla, who became the fourth wife of the Roman Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla.

Messalla Rufus married an unknown Roman woman, by whom he had two sons: Marcus Valerius Messalla (consul 32 BC) and Potitus Valerius Messalla (suffect consul 29 BC).

Career

He was twice accused of illegal practices in connection with the elections; on the first occasion he was acquitted, in spite of his obvious guilt, through the eloquence of his uncle Quintus Hortensius; on the second he was condemned. He took the side of Gaius Julius Caesar in the civil war. After Cicero's divorce (prior to his execution) he apparently married the widow Terentia. He was augur for fifty-five years and wrote a work on the science of divination.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Syme, Ronald, Augustan Aristocracy
• Cicero, Ad Fam. vi. i8, viii. 4, ad Alticum, iv. 16;
• Dio Cassius xl, 17, 45;
• Bellum africanum, 28;
• Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 9, 14
• Aulus Gellius xiii. 14, 3.

Political offices
Preceded by Appius Claudius Pulcher and Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus	Consul of the Roman Republic with Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus 53 BC	Succeeded by Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica (Metellus Scipio) and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus