Potitus Valerius Messalla

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Potitus Valerius Messalla also Marcus Valerius Messalla Potitus was a Roman senator of the Augustan period.

Origin and prenomen

Messalla came from the ancient Roman gens Valeria , one of the most important and influential patrician families of ancient Rome. He was the son of the consul from 53 BC. BC, Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus . There are doubts about its phenomenon , as it is usually only called Messalla Potitus or Potitus Messalla. Earlier research assumed that his prenomen was Marcus as it was with his father and grandfather, and that he had an additional cognomen , as did three other consulars from the Messallae branch, all called Marcus, at the time: his father, Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger (Consul 61 BC) and his son Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (Consul 31 BC). Potitus appeared earlier among the Valeria as cognomen; the full name was therefore Marcus Valerius Messalla Potitus . The more recent literature, however, sees Potitus as a first name, as shown by the fragmentary grave inscription and other inscriptions. Now, however, a Greek inscription on the base of his honorary statue recently found in Kos shows that the prenomen of Marcus is the right one.

Political career

Potitus Valerius Messalla was born at an unknown date before 31 BC. Called to the Quindecimviri sacris faciundis priestly college . He became quaestor and praetor urbanus in 32 BC. And in the year 29 BC BC in the 5th consulate of Octavian, later Augustus , suffect consul from July 1st of this year, after the second ordinary consul Sextus Appuleius had resigned. His consulate is inscribed by the fasti magistrorum vici found in 1928 . As consul he brought in late August 29 BC. In the name of the Senate and the people of Rome for the happy return of Octavian. After that, in a year that is not exactly known (perhaps the end of the 3rd / beginning of the 2nd decade BC) he became proconsul of the province of Asia and held this office for two years. According to his funerary inscription, he was also a legate of another province, possibly Syria . The year of his death is not known, but he lived at the secular games in 17 BC. Chr., Since it is mentioned in the official files of the games.

Messalla's sons were Lucius Valerius Messalla Volesus , consul in 5 AD, and Manius Valerius Messal (l) a Potitus, who, probably under his father, was quaestor in the province of Asia.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ For example Hans Georg Gundel : Messalla I. 9. In: Der Kleine Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, column 1243.
  2. ↑ a b CIL 6, 37075 : Potitus Vale [rius M (arci) f (ilius) Messalla] / XVvir sac (ris) fa [ciund (is) IIvir a (uro) a (rgento) a (ere) f (lando ) f (eriundo)] / q (uaestor) pr (aetor) urb (anus) c [o (n) s (ul) proco (n) s (ul) provinciae] / Asiae to leg (atus) [Imp (eratoris ) Caes (aris) Augusti in Syria?] .
  3. ↑ AE 2008, 1324. "Μάρκος [Ού] αλέριος Μεσσάλα Ποτῖτ [ος]". D. Bosnakis, Kl. Hallof: Old and new inscriptions from Kos III , in Chiron 38 , 2008.
  4. ↑ CIL 6, 10286 .
  5. ^ Cassius Dio 51, 21 ( English translation ).
  6. ^ Karl-Ludwig Elvers: Valerius [I 38]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12/1, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01482-7 , Sp. 1100.
  7. ↑ CIL 6, 877 .
personal data
SURNAME Valerius Messalla, Potitus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Messalla, Potitus Valerius; Messalla Potitus, Marcus Valerius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION roman senator
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 17 BC Chr.