“ MESSALLA CORVINUS, MARCUS VALERIUS (64 B.C.–A.D. 8) , Roman general, author and patron of literature and art. He was educated partly at Athens, together with Horace and the younger Cicero. In early life he became attached to republican principles, which he never abandoned, although he avoided offending Augustus by too open an expression of them. ”

“ To commemorate his Sicilian victory, he caused it to be pictorially represented on the wall of the Curia Hostilia, the first example of an historical fresco at Rome. He is said also to have brought the first sun-dial from Catana to Rome, where it was set up on a column in the forum. ”

“ Cicero, Ad Fam. vi. 18, viii. 4, ad Atticum, iv. 16; Dio Cassius xl. 17, 45; Bellum africanum, 28; Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 9, 14; Aulus Gellius xiii. 14, 3.
2. Manius Valerius Maximus Corvinus Messalla, consul 263 B.C. In this year, with his colleague Manius Otacilius (or Octacilius) Crassus, he gained a brilliant victory over the Carthaginians and Syracusans; the honour of a triumph was decreed to him alone. His relief of Messana obtained him the cognomen Messalla, which remained in the family for nearly 800 years. ”