Background
Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus was born in 64 B. C. , the place birth is unknown.
Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus was born in 64 B. C. , the place birth is unknown.
Corvinus was educated partly at Athens, together with Horace and the younger Cicero.
Corvinus was proscribed by the Second Triumvirate in 43, but he escaped to the camp of Brutus and Cassius and after their defeat at Philippi (42) went over to Mark Antony. Later he joined Octavian and campaigned for him against Sextus Pompeius (36), the Illyrians (35–34), and the Alpine Salassi (34–33). Elected consul with Octavian, in place of Antony, for 31, he fought against Antony in the Battle of Actium. He conquered Aquitania (in modern southwestern France) as proconsul (for which he celebrated a triumph in 27) and later held eastern commands. Becoming curator aquarum (superintendent of aqueducts) in 11, he restored the Via Latina between Tusculum and Alba and reconstructed several buildings. In 2 B. C. he proposed that Augustus be formally granted the title "father of his country" (pater patriae).
As a literary patron Messalla was second only to Maecenas. His literary circle included the poets Albius Tibullus, Ovid (as a young man), Lygdamus, and Sulpicia (his niece). Messalla’s own works are lost. His memoirs of the civil wars after the death of Caesar were used by Suetonius and Plutarch. He also wrote pastoral poems in Greek, translations of Greek speeches, occasional satirical and love poems, and essays on grammar. As an orator he followed Cicero instead of the Atticizing school, but his style was affected. Late in life he (or possibly his relative Messalla Rufus) wrote a work on the great Roman families.
Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus died in 8 A. D.
Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus married twice. His first wife was in Calpurnia, possibly the daughter of the Roman politician Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. Corvinus had three children with Calpurnia: a daughter Valeria Messalina; a second daughter, also called Valeria and a son called Marcus Valerius Messalla Messallinus. His second son was Marcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messalinus, who is believed to have been born to a second unknown wife.