Lucius Valerius Catullus Messalinus

Lucius Valerius Catullus Messalinus was a Roman senator during the Flavian dynasty, and is best known as the most hated and ruthless delator or informer of his age. He was feared all the more due to his blindness.[1]

Bartolomeo Borghesi supposed Messalinus was the son of Statilia Messalina, third wife of Nero, but by a previous marriage. However, as Ronald Syme pointed out, that "would make her older than Otho (who was born in 32), and bring her close in age to Valeria Messalina."[2] So in his stemma of the descendants of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, Syme makes Statilia and Catullus Messalinus sister and brother.[3] However, Rutledge identifies the parents of Messalinus as Valerius Catullus and Statilia Messalina.[4] It is unclear how he is related to the suffect consul of AD 31, Sextus Tedius Valerius Catullus, the only other consular Valerius Catullus.[5]

Messalinus was twice consul. The first time was in AD 73, when he was the colleague of the emperor Domitian;[6] Steven Rutledge observes this was "an exceptional honor, since of the twenty-four ordinary consulships held between 70 and 81, all but six were held by Vespasian and his sons."[4] The second time was in the year 85, as the colleague of Quintus Julius Cordinus Gaius Rutilius Gallicus.[7]

The names of none of the targets of his accusations or prosecutions have come down to us. Until August 93, Messalinus did not make any accusations in the Senate, instead playing a role behind the scenes in the consilium of the emperor Domitian;[8] Tactius writes how the "noisy counsels of Messalinus were not heard beyond the walls of Alba."[9] Nonetheless, he is not known to have held any other official posts.[1]

Messalinus had died by AD 97, the date of a dinner party hosted by emperor Nerva, the successor of Domitian, where he asked, "If he had gone on living, what do you think would have become of him?"[10]

References

  1. 1 2 Brian W. Jones, The Emperor Domitian (London: Routlege, 1993), p. 57
  2. ↑ Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, (Oxford: University Press, 1986), p. 241
  3. ↑ Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, "Table IX, Messalla Corvinus"
  4. 1 2 Rutledge, Imperial Inquisitions: Prosecutors and informants from Tiberius to Domitian (London: Routledge, 2001), p. 274
  5. ↑ Olli Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature in the Roman Empire, (Helsinski: Societas Scientiarum Fenica, 1992), p. 26 n. 13
  6. ↑ Paul Gallivan, "The Fasti for A. D. 70-96", Classical Quarterly, 31 (1981), pp. 188, 213
  7. ↑ Gallivan, "Fasti for A. D. 70-96", pp. 190, 216
  8. ↑ Rutledge, Imperial Inquisitions, pp. 274f
  9. ↑ Tacitus, Agricola, 45.1
  10. ↑ Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, IV.22.4-6
Political offices
Preceded by
Sextus Marcius Priscus, and
Gnaeus Pinarius Aemillianus Cicatricula
as Suffect consuls		 Consul of the Roman Empire
73
with Caesar Domitianus II		 Succeeded by
Lucius Aelius Oculatus,
and Quintus Gavius Atticus
as Suffect consuls
Preceded by
Imp. Caesar Domitianus Augustus XI,
and Titus Aurelius Fulvus II
as Ordinary consuls		 Suffect Consul of the Roman Empire
85
with Quintus Julius Cordinus Gaius Rutilius Gallicus II		 Succeeded by
Marcus Arrecinus Clemens II,
and Lucius Baebius Honoratus
as Suffect consuls
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