Consul (61 BC) - Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger (Up)

Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger was a senator of the Roman Republic.

He was praetor in the year of Cicero's consulship, 63 BC, and consul in 61, the year in which Publius Clodius profaned the mysteries of the Bona Dea, and Gnaeus Pompeius triumphed for his several victories over the Cilician pirates, Tigranes the Great and Mithridates VI of Pontus. Messalla, as consul, took an active part in the prosecution of Clodius. Messalla was censor in 55 BC.

As an orator, Messalla was thought to be respectable. In 80 BC he was engaged in collecting evidence for the defence in the cause of Sextus Roscius of Ameria. In 62 BC he solicited Cicero to undertake the defence of his kinsman, Publius Cornelius Sulla. And in 54 BC he was one of the six orators whom Marcus Aemilius Scaurus retained on his trial.

Messalla married a woman named Polla, by whom he had a son, Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus and two daughters, both named Valeria, who married Quintus Pedius and Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the son of the consul of 51 BC, respectively.

Sources

English Wikipedia: Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger