Manius Valerius Maximus was the son of
Marcus Valerius Maximus Corvinus, consul in 289 BC, and grandson of
Marcus Valerius Corvus. With his colleague,
Manius Otacilius Crassus, he gained a brilliant victory over the
Carthaginians and
Syracusans: more than sixty of the
Sicilian towns acknowledged the supremacy of Rome, and the consuls concluded a peace treaty with
Hieron of Syracuse, which lasted the remainder of his [Hieron] long life. This acknowledgment proved equally advantageous to both Syracuse and Rome. He was awarded the
triumph De Paeneis et Rege Siculorum Hierone. His relief of
Messana obtained him the
cognomen Messalla, which remained in the family for nearly 800 years. To commemorate his Sicilian victory, he arranged for it to be pictorially represented (painted) on the wall of the
Curia Hostilia, the first example of an historical
fresco at
Rome(it still hung there two centuries later). He is also said to have brought the first
sundial from
Catana to Rome, where it was set up on a column in the
forum. Messalla was censor in 252 BC, when he degraded 400
equites to aerarians for neglect of duty in. ==References==