Lucius Valerius Messalla Thrasea Priscus

Lucius Valerius Messalla Thrasea Priscus[1] (died c. 212) was a Roman senator active during the reigns of Commodus and Septimus Severus. He was appointed consul in AD 196 as the colleague of Gaius Domitius Dexter.[2]

Biography

Thrasea Priscus was a member of the second century gens Valeria.[3] It is possible he was the son of Lucius Vipstanus Poplicola Messalla, who may have been a praetor designatus but died before he acceded to the consulate. If so, Thrasea Priscus altered his gentilicum to reflect his descent through the Vipstani from the republican Valerii.[4] After stepping down from the consulate, Thrasea Priscus may have held the office of curator aquarum (or supervisor of aqueducts) in Rome, around AD 198.[5]

Thrasea Priscus may have been a partisan of Publius Septimius Geta, the brother and rival of the emperor Caracalla. He became one of the victims of the earliest purges of Caracalla, being struck down in the emperor's presence after the murder of Geta.[6]

Christian Settipani has speculated that Thrasea Priscus married Coelia Balbina, possibly the daughter of Marcus Aquilius Coelius Apollinaris, and a very close relative of the future Emperor Balbinus.[7] It is believed that Thrasea Priscus had a son, Lucius Valerius Messalla Apollinaris, who was Roman consul in AD 214.[8]

Ancestry

Notes
  1. Gaius Vipstanus Messalla Gallus was the son of Valeria Messallia and grandson of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus.

References
  1. According to Christian Settipani (Continuité gentilice et continuité sénatoriale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale (2000), p. 220), his agnomen was Paetus
  2. Paul M. M. Leunissen, Konsuln und Konsulare in der Zeit von Commodus bis Severus Alexander (Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben, 1989), p. 133
  3. Birley, Anthony, Septimius Severus: The African Emperor (1999), pg. 159
  4. As Ronald Syme has suggested, "Missing Persons III", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 11, (1962), p. 155
  5. Memmen, p. 123
  6. Levick, Barbara Julia Domna, Syrian Empress (2007), p. 90
  7. Settipani, Continuité gentilice, p. 220
  8. Memmen, p. 125

Sources
  • Mennen, Inge, Power and Status in the Roman Empire, AD 193-284 (2011)
Political offices
Preceded by
Publius Julius Scapula Tertullus Priscus, and
Quintus Tineius Clemens		 Consul of the Roman Empire
196
with Gaius Domitius Dexter II		 Succeeded by
Titus Sextius Magius Lateranus,
and Cuspius Rufinus
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