Gaius Volusenus Gaius Volusenus Quadratus ( " fl . " mid - 1st century BC ) was a distinguished military officer of the Roman Republic . He served under Julius Caesar for ten years , during the Gallic Wars and the civil war of the 40s . Caesar praises him for his strategic sense and courageous integrity . Military service . During the Gallic War Volusenus served as " Tribunus Militum " in the 12th Legion under the legate Servius Galba , and distinguished himself in battle when Galba was defeated by the Nantuates in 57 BC . In 55 BC Volusenus was sent out by Caesar in a single warship to undertake a week - long survey of the coast of south eastern Britain prior to Caesar ' s invasion . He probably examined the Kent coast between Hythe and Sandwich . When Caesar set off with his troops however he arrived at Dover and saw that landing would impossible . Instead he travelled north and landed on an open beach , probably near Walmer . Volusenus had evidently failed to find a suitable harbour , which would have prevented the damage Caesar ' s exposed ships would suffer at high tide . The great natural harbour at Richborough , a little further north , was used by Claudius in his invasion just 100 years later , but we do not know whether Volusenus travelled that far , or indeed whether it existed in a suitable form at that time ( our knowledge of the geomorphology of the Wantsum Channel that created that haven is limited ) . Volusenus later became " Praefectus Equitum " ( cavalry commander ) . In 53 BC , during the revolt of Ambiorix , he was sent ahead by Caesar with cavalry to relieve Quintus Cicero , who was besieged by the Sugambri in Atuatuca , but found it difficult to convince the terrified defenders that the rest of Caesar ' s army was not far behind . When the legate Titus Labienus suspected Commius , the formerly loyal king of the Atrebates , of conspiring against them in the winter of 54 or 53 BC , he invited him to a meeting and sent Volusenus and some centurion s to execute him for his treachery . Commius escaped , but sustained a wound to the head . In 51 BC Volusenus was serving as commander of cavalry under Mark Antony , and in the winter of that year was ordered by Antony to pursue Commius , who was conducting a campaign of agitation and guerrilla warfare . He defeated him in several skirmishes , and finally destroyed Commius ' s forces in a single engagement , although at the cost of a spear - wound to the thigh . S . P . Oakley sees this encounter as an unusual example of single combat in the Late Republic , echoing duels between Romans and physically superior Celts in the Early Republic . Commius himself escaped and later sued for peace on the condition that he never again had to meet a Roman . In 48 BC , during the Civil War , an attempt to assassinate Volusenus was made by Aegus and Roscillus , two noble brothers of the Celtic Allobroges who had served in Caesar ' s cavalry throughout the Gallic Wars . The brothers had been caught defrauding their comrades of pay and decided to defect to Pompey ' s side . The death of Volusenus was meant to render Pompey useful service , but the task proved too difficult , and they were forced to defect without any such token . Ronald Syme noted that Volusenus ' s decade - long tour of duty might have been uncommon for a man of his equestrian social rank , many of whom " owed their commissions less to merit than to the claims of friendship and influence or the hope of procuring gain and political advancement . " The exemplary career of Volusenus , like that of Decidius Saxa , indicates that even in the Late Republic an equestrian might choose to excel as a career officer rather than as a publican or businessman . Volusenus is one of only three ranking officers to whom Caesar ascribes the quality of " virtus " . Political career ? Based on a " hopelessly corrupt " reading of one of Cicero ' s speeches against Mark Antony , Volusenus was sometimes identified by 19th - century scholars as a tribune of the " plebs " in 43 BC . The passage , and Volusenus ' s documented loyalty to Caesar , was thus interpreted to mean that he was a supporter of Mark Antony , but two other manuscripts indicate that the proper noun is in fact a verb " ( voluissent ) " and neither Cicero nor any other source mentions Volusenus among Antony ' s followers . T . R . S . Broughton does not record a plebeian tribunate for Volusenus in " The Magistrates of the Roman Republic " , confirming only that Volusenus was a military tribune in 56 and held the rank of " praefectus equitum " in 52 – 51 and again in 48 . Italian origin . The name Volusenus may be Etruscan in origin ( as " Volasenna " ) , but some scholars have attributed an Umbri an origin to the family , based on inscriptional evidence .