Gaius Prastina Messalinus was a Roman senator, active during the reign of Antoninus Pius. He was consul in the year 147 with Lucius Annius Largus as his colleague.Werner Eck, "Die Fasti consulares der Regierungszeit des Antoninus Pius, eine Bestandsaufnahme seit Géza Alföldys Konsulat und Senatorenstand" in Studia epigraphica in memoriam Géza Alföldy, hg. W. Eck, B. Feher, and P. Kovács (Bonn, 2013), p. 75 Messalinus is known entirely from inscriptions.
An item of interest is his cognomen "Messalinus", which suggests a connection to one branch of the gens Valeria. His full name was thought to have been "Gaius Ulpius Pacatus Prastina Messalinus". Géza Alföldy dismissed the possibility that Messalinus was the descendant of a man given Roman citizenship during the reign of the emperor Trajan, and instead argued that Messalinus was a relative of that emperor.Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand unter der Antoninen (Bonn: Rudolf Habelt Verlag, 1977), p. 313 However, the names "Ulpius Pacatus" were ascribed to Messalinus in error.Jenő Fitz, "Prastinae Messalini", Alba Regia 24 (1990), pp. 47–52.
The cursus honorum of Messalinus is imperfectly known; besides his consulate, only two imperial appointments are known. The first was before his consulate, when he was appointed governor of Numidia; Alföldy dates his tenure to the years 143, 145, and 146.Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 247 The second appointment was after his consulate, as governor of the imperial province of Lower Moesia, a post attested by a military diploma dated to between the years 145 and 157.Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 231
Alföldy dismissed identifying Messalinus with the Pacatus who was governor of Gallia Lugdunensis at some point between the years 138 and 161.Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 255 A possible descendant is the governor of Lower Moesia in 244, Gaius Prastina Messalinus.Nicolay Sharankov & Ivan Hristov, "A Milestone of Emperor Philip the Arab from the Road Oescus – Philippopolis Found at the Eastern Wall of the castellum of Sostra", Archaeologia Bulgarica, 23 (2019), pp. 57-70
Messalinus' life is a blank after his term in Lower Moesia.
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