Marcus Valerius Messala Barbatus  Marcus Valerius Messala Barbatus (also found as Barbatus Messala in Suetonius) was a politician at the beginning of the Roman Empire; he was notably consul in AD 20. He was also the father of Messalina, the wife of the Emperor Claudius. Messala was consul for the year 20 with Marcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messalinus as his colleague. Messala was the son of Claudia Marcella Minor and Marcus Valerius Messalla Appianus. Marcella was the daughter of Gaius Claudius Marcellus and Octavia the Younger, the sister of Augustus and great-niece of Julius Caesar. Through his mother Messala was related to the Julio-Claudian Dynasty. Messala also had a sister, Claudia Pulchra, who married Publius Quinctilius Varus. Messala later married his first cousin (or half-cousin), Domitia Lepida the Younger, and together they became the parents of Valeria Messalina, wife of the Emperor Claudius.