Messalla
11. L. Valerius Potiti F. MESSALLA VOLESUS, son probably of No. 9, was consul in A. D. 5, and afterwards proconsul of Asia, where his cruelties drew on him the anger of Augustus and a condemnatory decree from the senate. According to Seneca, Messalla in one day decapitated 300 persons, and walked among the headless trunks exclaiming "a royal spectacle, and more than royal, for what king ever did the like !" (Tac. Ann. 3.68; Sen. de Ira, 2.5; Fasti.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.