Marcus Vipstanus Gallus
{{Short description|Roman senator}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marcus Vipstanus Gallus
| birth_date = c. 28 BC
| death_date = after AD 18
| known_for = Roman senator, Suffect consul in AD 18
| spouse = Valeria?
| children = Lucius Vipstanus Poplicola, Gaius Vipstanus Messalla Gallus, possibly Gaius Vipstanus Apronianus
| relatives = Lucius Vipstanus Gallus (brother/relative)
| nationality = Roman
}}
Marcus Vipstanus Gallus (born around 28 BC, died after AD 18) was a Roman senator at the beginning of the first century AD. He served as suffect consul in 18 with Gaius Rubellius Blandus as his colleague.Alison E. Cooley, The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy (Cambridge: University Press, 2012), p. 459
He likely came from the area of Cliternia, among the Sabines and Aequi.Ronald Syme, Roman Papers, II, ed. by Ernst Badian, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1979, pp. 533–536 He was a homo novus, the first of his family to attain the consulship. His relative (perhaps brother) Lucius Vipstanus Gallus served as praetor and died in 17.Tacitus, Annales, II, 51, 1. An inscription from the Athenian Acropolis honors both brothers.IG II2 4185.
Marcus’s suffect consulship in 18 may have begun in August or October, possibly replacing Gaius Annius Pollio who abdicated before the year’s end.{{CIL|4|1552}}; {{CIL|6|14221}}; {{AE|1993|1161}} He may have married Valeria, likely the daughter of the consul of 3 BC, Marcus Valerius Messalla Messallinus, whose friendship with Tiberius may have helped secure Marcus’s promotion.Ronald Syme, Roman Papers, III, ed. by Anthony R. Birley, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984, p. 1360.
His son, Lucius Vipstanus Poplicola, became an ordinary consul in 48, and another son, Gaius Vipstanus Messalla Gallus, served as suffect consul in the same year.Der Neue Pauly, Stuttgart 1999, Vol. 12/2, p. 240. Some genealogies also link him with Gaius Vipstanus Apronianus, consul in 59, suggesting a possible connection to the gens Apronia.Prosopographia Imperii Romani V 687; V 689.