Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus

Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (64 BC – AD 8 or c. 12[1]) was a Roman general, author, and patron of literature and art.

[3] The writings of the poet Ovid (Ex Ponto XVI.1-52) reveal that the second wife of Corvinus was a woman called Aurelia Cotta.

He subsequently held commands in the East and suppressed the revolt in Gallia Aquitania;[6] for this latter feat he celebrated a triumph in 27 BC.

Yet he also resigned from the post of Prefect of the city in 25 BC after six days of holding this office because it conflicted with his ideas of constitutionalism.

[7] His influence on literature, which he encouraged after the manner of Gaius Maecenas, was considerable, and the group of literary personalities whom he gathered around him—including Tibullus, Lygdamus (probably a pseudonym) and the poetess Sulpicia—has been called "the Messalla circle".

Late in life he wrote a work on the great Roman families, wrongly identified with an extant poem De progenie Augusti Caesaris which bears the name of Corvinus, but in fact is a 12th-century production.

Since its original excavation in the 1960s it was believed to belong to his family since he was a patron of Ovid who wrote of his visit to Corvinus's son on Elba before his exile on the Black Sea.

This was supposedly due to a case in which the tribune, Marcus Valerius Corvus in 349 BC, while on the battlefield, accepted a challenge to single combat issued to the Romans by a barbarian warrior of great size and strength.

Suddenly, a raven flew from a trunk, perched upon his helmet, and began to attack his foe's eyes with its beak so fiercely that the barbarian was blinded and the Roman beat him easily.

This was later taken up in the coat of arms of Polish aristocratic families connected with the Hunyadis, and also led to Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus' triumph over the Aquitanians (27 BC) being commemorated in the pediment of the Krasiński Palace in Warsaw.