It has been argued that Messalla's campaign in Gaul may have taken place earlier than his governorship of Syria: Knox, P. E. (2005). "Milestones in the Career of Tibullus". The Classical Quarterly, 55(1), 204–216; see pp. 207–208.
The excavator, Luigi Canina, deduced from a small piece of inscription with the name "Cotta" that the monument had been built by Marcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messalinus for his father, Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, but this inscription and other architectural fragments are now assumed to have come from a smaller monument at the site, and they may have nothing to do with Corvinus, cf. L. Grifi, "Sopra la iscrizione antica dell auriga scirto", Diss. del. Acc. Rom., Rome 1855, p.491ff. [1]; M. Marcelli, "IV MIGLIO, 14. Casal Rotondo", in: Susanna Le Pera Buranelli & Rita Turchetti, edd., Sulla Via Appia da Roma a Brindisi: le fotografie di Thomas Ashby: 1891–1925, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2003, p.77
