MARCELLUS, Μ. Claudius, one of the most celebrated Roman generals, the principal events of whose life [7:14:243] are included between b. c. 222 and 208. His valour and military science made him feared by the enemies of his country, whilst the mildness and gentleness of his deportment won their respect and esteem. Rome was at this period engaged in war with the Cisalpine Gauls, and had appointed Flaminius, the consul, to the command of a large army in the north of Italy. This election was found to be invalid (see C. Flaminius), and Marcellus was raised to the consulship, b. c. 222. He joined the army without delay; and though the Insubres offered terms of accommodation, he prevailed on the people to reject them. He laid siege to Acerrae, now Gerrha, on the banks of the Po; and wher>the Gauls attempted to make a diversion by attacking Clastidium, Marcellus left his colleague before Acerrae, marched against them, and in the battle which ensued the Gauls were defeated, and their king Virido-marus was slain by the hands of Marcellus himself. This was the third time that a Roman general had presented the spolia opima to Jupiter Feretrius. Marcellus obtained the honours of a triumph, which is said to have been one of the most magnificent ever witnessed in Rome, whether we consider the richness of the spoils that were displayed in it, or the prodigious size of the captive. At the commencement of the second Punic war (b. c. 218), Marcellus was appointed as praetor to the command of the troops in Sicily; but he was recalled after the defeat at Cannae (2d August b. c. 216), and sent to Apulia to collect the scattered remains of the Roman army. This he effected with much prudence; and the severe check which Hannibal received from him before Nola tended greatly to reanimate the drooping spirits of his countrymen. Hannibal used to say, that he feared Fabius as his schoolmaster, and Marcellus as his enemy. Marcellus was again named consul, iî. c. 215; but he immediately abdicated, on account of some flaw in the election, and proceeded to Nola in the capacity of proconsul. The following year he was raised a third time to the consulship (b. c. 214), and proceeded to the command of the war in Sicily. Here he laid siege to Syracuse, thinking that the conquest of this place would immediately be followed by the full possession of the island. Syracuse was defended by the skill of the celebrated Archimedes, and it was not till after a blockade of three years that Marcellus was able to take the city, when Archimedes was killed (b c. 212), though positive orders had been issued that his life should be spared. Marcellus exerted himself to save the city from the plunder of the soldiers, but failed to preserve it from this calamitous fate. When he returned to Rome, he received the honour of an ovation, or lesser triumph, as the war was still unfinished in Sicily. He brought to Rome many beautiful statues and paintings which had adorned Syracuse, and was the first to teach the Romans to appreciate the exquisite works of Greece, which had hitherto been unknown to them. He was named for the fourth time consul, b. c. 210, and the command of the war in Sicily fell to him by lot; but he exchanged it for Italy with his colleague Laevinus. Marcellus recovered several cities of the Samnites from Hannibal, who carefully shunned any regular battle with his opponent. He was appointed consul the fifth time, b. c. 208, when he fell into an ambush which had been laid for him by Hannibal, and was killed. Thus fell Marcellus, who was called the sward of Rome, whilst Fabius was regarded as its bucliler. His life has been written by Plutarch, and many facts respecting him may be gathered from Livy (xxii.-xxvii.).

Marcellus, Μ. Claudius, was of the same family as the conqueror of Syracuse, and lived at a period when the designs of Caesar against the liberties of his country began to be apparent. Marcellus was named consul (b. c. 51), along with Sulpicius Rufus; and he proposed that Caesar should be deprived of the command of the armies of Gaul; but this advice was not attended to. (Cic. Alt. vii. 1.) The civil war broke out (b. c. 49), when Marcellus joined the party of Pompey; but on the death of the latter (b. c. 48), he ceased to take part in the political affairs of his country, and retired to Mitylene, that he might not witness the overthrow of the republic. Here he was found by Brutus as he was returning from Asia. (Sence. ad Helv c. 9.) His friends at Rome, however, were anxious that he should return, and they did not find it difficult to prevail on Caesar to forget the part he had taken against him. His pardon, indeed, seems to have been more readily granted by Caesar than accepted by Marcellus. He was unwilling to leave his retreat at Mitylene, if we may judge from the letters of Cicero addressed to him. They are the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth of the fourth book ad Familiares. The eleventh is from Marcellus to Cicero. Marcellus, however, at last yielded, and had reached Athens on his way homewards, when he was murdered by P. Magius, one of his companions in exile, in despair at his departure, B. c. 46. His old colleague Sulpicius happened to be at Athens at this time, and took care that his funeral rites should be properly attended to. (Cic. ad Div. iv. 12.) When Caesar granted the pardon of Marcellus, Cicero returned thanks in a most eloquent speech, which is still preserved {Pro Marcello). This was the first time he had spoken in the senate after the downfall of the republic, and his speech is supposed to be the model on which Pliny the younger formed his Panegyric on Trajan.

Marcellus, Μ. Claudius, son of C. Marcellus, and of Octavia, sister to Augustus, seems to have been endowed by nature with all those qualities which unite to form a great character. Capable of the closest application to study, gentle in his manners, and temperate in his habits, he was regarded by the Romans with feelings of the strongest affection. He was first betrothed to Pompeia, the daughter of Sextus Pompey, so early as b. c. 37, when she was only six years of age (Dion Cass, xlviii. 38); but he subsequently married Julia, the daughter of Augustus, when he had reached his seventeenth year, b. c. 26 (liii. 27, Suet. Aug. 63). He was raised to the curule edileship by the senate; but he died very suddenly, b. c. 23, owing, it is said, to the injudicious use of the cold bath prescribed by Antonius Musa, the physician of Augustus. (Dion Cass, liii. 30.) The Romans were overwhelmed with grief at his death, and suspected the Empress Livia of having poisoned him, that her own son Tiberius might be the successor of Augustus. His mother Octavia is said to have shut herself up in her room for many months, and to have refused all consolation. (Sen. ad Mare, ii.) In the life of Virgil, commonly ascribed to Donatus, we are told that the poet recited to her part of the Aeneid, and when he came to the words

Heu! miserande puer, si quid fata aspera rumpas, Tu Marcellus eris, alluding to his ancestor the great Marcellus, she fainted away. When she recovered, she ordered the poet to be rewarded with a large sum of money. Marcellus was buried in the Campus Martius, in the mausoleum of Augustus, and the emperor built a theatre, calling it after his name, Theatrum. Marcelli. (Tacit. Ann, iii. 64.)