A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

5. M.Vinicius, P. F. M. N., the son of No. 4, was born at Cales, a town in Campania, and is spoken of by Tacitus as " mitis ingenio et comptae facundiae." He was consul in A. D. 30 with C. Cassius Longinus, and it was in this year that the historian Velleius Paterculus dedicated his work to him. [PATERCULUS.] In A. D. 33 Tiberius gave Julia Livilla, the daughter of Germanicus, in marriage to Vinicius; and as Germanicus was by adoption the son of Tiberius, Vinicius is called the progener of Tiberius. Vinicius was consul a second time in the reign of Claudius, A. D. 45, with Taurus Statilius Corvinus. He was put to death by Messalina in the following year, to whom he had become an object of suspicion, because she had previously put to death his wife [JULIA, No. 8], and likewise an object of hatred because he had refused her embraces. (Tac. Ann. 6.15, 45; D. C. 60.25, 27.)