Marcus Cornelius Nigrinus Curiatius Maternus

Marcus Cornelius Nigrinus Curiatius Maternus was a Roman senator and general during the reign of Domitian. He was suffect consul during the nundinium of September to October AD 83 with Lucius Calventius Sextus Carminius Vetus. Although some experts consider him a rival with Trajan as heir apparent to the emperor Nerva, he is primarily known from inscriptions.

His polyonymous name has led to many interpretations. One, based on the form of his name used in consular dating ("M. Cornelius Nigrinus"), is that he was born Cornelius and adopted by a Curiatius Maternus (likely the orator of Tacitus' Dialogus de oratoribus), but Olli Salomies notes "the order of the names makes this altogether unlikely". Ronald Syme suggested that "not perhaps a Cornelius adopting a Curiatius (still less the reverse, as some incautiously assumed), but rather the son of a Curiatia. That is, a presumed sister of (C.?) Curiatius Maternus, orator, dramatist, and the central character in the Dialogus of Tacitus." Some authorities have suggested that this Curiatius is the same person as the orator in Tacitus' short work.