Marcus Valerius Messalla was the father of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, consul in 53 BC.
He was twice accused of illegal practices in connection with the elections; on the first occasion he was acquitted, in spite of his obvious guilt, through the eloquence of his uncle Quintus Hortensius; on the second he was condemned. He took the side of Caesar in the civil war. Nothing appears to be known of his later history. He was augur for fifty-five years and wrote a work on the science of divination.
Cicero, Ad Fam. vi. i8, viii. 4, ad Alticum, iv. 16; Dio Cassius xl, 17, 45; Bellum africanum, 28; Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 9, 14 Aulus Gellius xiii. 14, 3.
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