Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (consul 58)


Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus was a Roman Senator who lived in the Roman Empire in the 1st century.

Biography

Early life

Corvinus was a member of the Republican gens Valeria. Corvinus was the namesake of the Senator and Augustan literary patron Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus. He may have been a son of the Senator and consul Marcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messalinus, who was a son of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, or possibly the son of the consul Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus and Domitia Lepida the Younger, thus making him the brother of Valeria Messalina, the third wife of the emperor Claudius.

Political career

In 46/47AD, Corvinus was a member of the Arval Brethren. From January to April in 58AD, he served as an ordinary consul with the emperor Nero and then from May to June in 58AD, as a suffect consul with Gaius Fonteius Agrippa. During his consulship, the Senate paid him half a million sesterces as a subsidy for maintaining his senatorial census rank.