person
Vipstanus Messalla
Messalla
Aristocratic orator and the only interlocutor named in Tacitus's Histories (where he commands in the civil war of 69); here he delivers the case for the ancients and diagnoses the decline of oratory. A descendant of the Republican orator Messalla Corvinus.
Reading notes
- A Dialogue on Oratory §14 Vipstanus Messalla
The aristocratic orator who now arrives; he will argue the case for the ancients. A descendant of Messalla Corvinus, and a commander in the civil war of AD 69 (Tacitus, Histories).
- The Histories §3.9 Vipstanus Messala
Tribune of the Seventh Claudian legion, of distinguished family, the one man Tacitus says brought good character to the war; a source Tacitus elsewhere cites by name.