of poetry1. Messalla died at the advanced age of seventy-two, a few months before the poet's banishment, leaving two sons, M. Valerius Corvinus Messalla or Messallinus, and M. Aurelius Cotta Messallinus. (2) The elder of these, M. Valerius Corvinus Messalla or Messallinus, was one of the most powerful of the adherents of Tiberius. Born at some time before 719/35, and after 715/39, he was consul in 751/3, and ‘legatus Augusti pro praetore' of Dalmatia and Pannonia in 759/6. In the summer of that year he led his forces into Germany to assist Tiberius, and shortly afterwards, on the outbreak of the insurrection in Dalmatia and Pannonia of the two Batos, served with great distinction and bravery in that war2; and in recognition was granted the 'triumphalia ornamenta' at the triumph celebrated by Tiberius. As a politician his career was less honourable; his servility and base adulation of Tiberius are gravely censured by Tacitus. In 767/14, at the first meeting of the senate under Tiberius, he moved that the oath of allegiance to the Emperor should in future be taken every year, instead of every ten years. In 773/20 he proposed, on the condemnation of Piso, the erection of a commemorative golden statue, and that the imperial family should receive the congratulations of the state: in 774/21 he opposed the proposal of Caecina Severus that no governor of a senatorial province should be accompanied by his wife. A summary of his speech on that occasion is given by Tacitus, who, like Ovid, praises him as inheriting the eloquence of his father Messalla. Tibullus (ii. 5.) commemorates the occasion of his election into the college of 'quindecimviri sacris faciundis,' who had charge of the Sibyl 1 P. i. 7. 28, 'hortator studii causaque faxque mei.' 75 (speaking of Messalla to his son Cotta Maximus) :— 'me tuus ille pater, Latiae facundia linguae, quae non inferior nobilitate fuit, primus ut auderem committere carmina famae 2 Dio, lv. 30; Vellei. ii. 112. 3 Suet. Tib. 20. Ovid alludes to this in P. ii. 2. 85, ff. 4 A. i. 8. 5; iii. 18. 3. Cp. P. ii. 3. Tac. A. iii. 34. I; Ovid, P. ii. 2. 51, ff.; cp. T. iv. 4. 5. line books. The estimate of his character in Velleius is more favourable than that of Tacitus: 'animo etiam quam gente nobilior, dignissimus qui et patrem Corvinum habuisset et cognomen suum Cottae fratri relinqueret'. His son, M. Valerius Messallinus, was consul in 773/20. Two of the Pontic Epistles are addressed to Messallinus, i. 7, and ii. 2, in both of which Ovid speaks with distant respect to the patron, of whom he had seen little personally, and who he fears may disown any connection with one that had offended the Imperial House, of which he is a devoted adherent". The patronage of the father Messalla and friendship of the brother Cotta embolden the poet to ask for help from one whom he would not otherwise have ventured to address". Of the Tristia, iv. 4 is obviously to Messallinus". There is the same timid tone of distant supplication, towards one who is far above the poet in rank, and with whom he is obviously not on very familiar terms, otherwise he would not have needed to apologise for addressing him by the reminder that they had had personal intercourse 10, and that the father had regarded him with favour". (3) With the younger son of Messalla Ovid was on far more intimate terms. Originally named M. Valerius Maximus, he 1 Vellei. ii. 112. 2 * P. ii. 2. 1, ' domus vestrae primis venerator ab annis': cp. P. i. 7.15, ff. 3 P. i. 7. 55, culta quidem, fateor, citra quam debuit, illa (i. e. tua ianua) est.' P. i. 7. 17; ii. 2. 5. 5 P. ii. 2. 19-22; 43-44. • P. i. 7. 27, ff. 7 Koch, p. 14; Graeber i. xx. That the poem is to his brother Cotta has been maintained by Borghesi, Oeuvr. Num. i. 409, and Lorentz, p. 10. 1. 8, ignoscas laudibus ipse tuis;' cp. 1. 21, 49 ff. • 1. 1: ‘O qui nominibus cum sis generosus avorum, exsuperas morum nobilitate genus.' 10 1. 23: 'nec nova, quod tecum loquor, est iniuria nostra, incolumis cum quo saepe locutus eram.' "1. 27, ff. That Messallinus is intended is made certain by the assertion (1. 37) that if he knew the whole train of events he would acquit the poet of wilful wrong-doing; for this remark would be pointless if addressed to Cotta, who knew all, as Ovid was with him at the time of his sentence. was adopted by his mother's brother Aurelius Cotta, who was childless, and thus became M. Aurelius Cotta Maximus; and finally, on the death of his elder brother, took the 'agnomen' Messallinus, and became M. Aurelius Cotta Messallinus; whence Tacitus always speaks of him as Cotta Messallinus'. He was younger than Ovid', who began to frequent the house of his father Messalla when about twenty years of age, before the birth of Cotta, who would accordingly seem to have been born about 731/23. He was consul 773/20, together with his nephew, M. Valerius Messallinus". Like his elder brother he was a 1 These changes of name give rise to some difficulty in distinguishing whether certain of the Pontic Epistles are to Cotta Messallinus or Fabius Maximus, for the name Maximus is used in addressing both persons. It has, however, been pretty well established that P. i. 2 and iii. 3 are to Fabius Maximus, while P. i. 5, i. 9, ii. 3, ii. 8, iii. 2, iii. 5, are to Cotta. About iii. 8, Graeber, i., p. xi., is in doubt, but Woelffel and Lorentz seem to have shown satisfactorily that it is to Fabius, by noting that the words 'purpura saepe tuos fulgens praetexit amictus' (1. 7) are better suited to Fabius Maximus, who had held many offices, than to Cotta, who at that time had not yet been consul. Schulz, p. 28, conjectures that as none of P. iv. are addressed to Cotta, this apparently most faithful of Ovid's powerful friends, there were letters written to him, but that they have been lost. Considering that P. iv. consists of scattered poems collected and published after Ovid's death, this suggestion is highly plausible. 2 Cp. P. ii. 3. 55, 'iuvenis rarissime,' iii. 5. 7; 'iuvenis patrii non degener oris;' ibid. 37, ‘iuvenis studiorum plene meorum. 4 P. ii. 3. 71. T. iv. 10. 57 ff.; P. ii. 3. 75 ff. The following is the genealogy of the house of Messalla :— M. Valerius Corvinus Messallinus, cos. 751/3 M. Valerius Messallinus, cos. 773/20 (Tac. A. iii. 2). M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus, 811/58 (Tac. A. xiii. 34). COS. M. Aurelius Cotta Maximus M. Aurelius Cotta strong adherent of Tiberius, with whom he was very intimate', and whose large minded policy of securing just administration for the provinces and curbing the exactions of the senatorial aristocracy he abetted by proposing in 777/24 that provincial governors should be answerable for the misdeeds of their wives even if themselves innocent. In 769/16, on the forced suicide of Libo Drusus, Cotta had moved that his image should not be carried in the family funeral processions; and in 782/29 he was ready prepared with a stringent proposal directed against Agrippinna and Nero3. At the time of Ovid's banishment he held some official position in the island of Ilva (Elba); and the poet formed one of his suite (cohors). The estimates formed of his character are conflicting. Tacitus, who is prejudiced against all the partizans of Tiberius, says that he was universally hated as a supporter of every cruel measure, that his character did not correspond to his noble ancestry, and that he was reduced to penury by his luxury, and was rendered infamous by his enormities *. Persius speaks of him as 'Messalla's blear-eyed son'; and the scholiast, explaining the expression as alluding to a weakness in the eyelids, which attacked him in old age, adds that he was addicted to many vices 5. On the other hand, Ovid, to whom he was a most kind and liberal patron, speaks of him alone of his social superiors with a warmth of personal affection that differs but little from that 1 Tac. A. vi. 5 relates that when Cotta was charged with 'maiestas,' Tiberius' repetito inter se atque Cottam amicitiae principio crebrisque eius officiis commemoratis, ne verba prave detorta neu convivalium fabularum simplicitas in crimen duceretur postulavit.' 2 Tac. A. iv. 20. Tac. A. ii. 32; v. 3. Tac. A. vi. 5; iv. 20; vi. 7. Pers. ii. 72 and schol. The charge that he was a gourmand rests on the insufficient evidence of Pliny, H. N. x. 22. 57, 'sed quod constat, Messallinus Cotta, Messallae oratoris filius, palmas pedum ex his torrere atque patinis cum gallaceorum cristis.condire repperit; tribuetur enim a· me culinis cuiusque palma cum fide.' Pliny only says that Cotta invented this dish. which he feels towards the most intimate of his equals. Cotta was one of the few who was constant to him in his trouble1; he was a gentle and high-souled spirit 2, the worthy son of a worthy father. His munificence to literary men is attested by Juvenal*, and in an inscription recently discovered on the Appian Way his freedman Zosimus describes in elegiac verse, perhaps with some exaggeration, the liberality of Cotta, who had raised him to the equestrian census ". We may suppose that the poverty of his declining years was, to a large extent at any rate, brought about by his lavish munificence, rather than by the sinister cause assigned by Tacitus. Cotta, who is mentioned by Ovid among the contemporary poets, composed probably, besides fugitive pieces, a poem on the legend of Pylades and Orestes". 1 P. ii. 3. 29; iii. 2. 5. 2 P. iii. 2. 103: 'adde quod est animus semper tibi mitis, et altae 3 P. iii. 5. 7. • Iuv. v. 107 :—' quae Piso bonus quae Cotta solebat Largiri. vii. 95: 'quis tibi Maecenas, quis nunc erit aut Proculeius, aut Fabius, quis Cotta iterum, quis Lentulus alter?' 5 Graeber, I. xxii (see Henzen. Ann. dell' Inst. 1865, pp. 5-17):— 'M. Aurelius Cottae Maximi 1. Zosimus accensus patroni. libertinus eram, fateor, sed facta legetur patrono Cotta nobilis umbra meo, qui mihi saepe libens census donavit equestris, quique suas commisit opes mihi semper et idem Cottanumque meum produxit honore tribuni quid non Cotta dedit, qui nunc et carmina tristis P. iv. 16. 41 ff.; iii. 5. 39; Merkel, prolus. ad Ibin, p. 376; Hennig, p. 31. |