Messala (Ben-Hur) friendship with Judah and loyalty to the Romans. In the end of film, he reconciles with Ben-Hur. The character was portrayed by Toby Kebbell. Messala (Ben-Hur) Messala is a fictional character from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel "", and its film adaptations, where he appears as the main antagonist. Messala is a Roman nobleman and the son of a Roman tax collector; he is also Judah Ben-Hur's boyhood friend and turned into his arch-rival after betraying him. When Messala is reunited with Ben-Hur for the first time in five years, their different views and opinions ultimately end their friendship. Later, Messala
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ the left, he caught Messala’s wheel with the iron-shod point of his axle, and crushed it". By the time of "Ben-Hur"'s publication in 1880, Wallace had already published his first novel, "The Fair God; or, The Last of the 'Tzins" (1873), and "Commodus: An Historical Play" (1876) that was never produced. He went on to publish several more novels and biographies, including "The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell" (1893), a biography of President Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and "The Wooing of Malkatoon" (1898), but "Ben-Hur" remained his most significant work and best-known novel. "Humanities" editor Amy Lifson named