http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Valerius_Messalla_Rufus

Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus

Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus (c. 104/3 - 26 BC),[1] was a Roman politician, and consul in 53 BC

Family

Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus was the son of an otherwise unknown Marcus Valerius Messalla and Hortensia (sister of the consul of 69 BC). He had a sister named Valeria Messalla, who became the fourth wife of the Roman Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla.[2]

Messalla Rufus married an unknown Roman woman, by whom he had two sons:

1. Marcus Valerius Messalla (consul 32 BC) and
2. Potitus Valerius Messalla (suffect consul 29 BC).[3]

Career

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 Gaius Julius Caesar in the civil war. After Cicero's divorce (prior to his execution) he apparently married the widow Terentia. He was augur for fifty-five years and wrote a work on the science of divination.