Gaius Vipstanus Messalla Gallus
(Gaius) Vipstanus Messalla Gallus (c. 10 BC – aft. 60 AD) was a Roman senator who was consul suffectus in the nundinium of July-December 48 as the colleague of Lucius Vitellius.[1] J. Devrecker has offered the argument that the elements in his name ought to be set out as Gaius Messalla Vipstanus Gallus.[2]
Gallus has been identified as the proconsul of Asia for the term 59/60.[3]
Based on his name, Ronald Syme suggested that Gallus was the son of Lucius Vipstanus Gallus and a Valeria Messallia, the granddaughter of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus.[4] It is surmised that he was the brother of Lucius Vipstanus Poplicola, whom he succeeded in the consulship as a suffect consul in AD 48.
It is also surmised that Gallus is the father of the orator Lucius Vipstanus Messalla. Gallus' wife had earlier been married to Lucius Aquillius L.f. Regulus, the pontifex and quaestor of Tiberius mentioned in CIL VI, 2122.[5] by whom she had a son named Marcus Aquilius Regulus.[6] She has not yet been identified.
References
- ^ Paul Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Claudius", Classical Quarterly, 28 (1978), pp. 409, 425
- ^ Devrecker, "C. Messalla Vipstanus Gallus, ou l'histoire d'un nom", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 22 (1976), pp. 203-206
- ^ Laale, Hans Willer, Ephesus (Ephesos): An Abbreviated History from Androclus to Constantine XI (2011), p. 198
- ^ Syme, Ronald, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 241-242
- ^ Paul von Rohden, "Aquilius 34", Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, volume II.1 (1895), col. 331
- ^ Morgan, Gwyn, 69 A.D.: The Year Of Four Emperors (Oxford: University Press, 2006), p. 283