Marcus Claudius Marcellus

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This article is about the Punic War general. For other men with this name, see Marcus Claudius Marcellus (disambiguation).

Marcus Claudius Marcellus (ca. 268 BC-208 BC) was a Roman general, one of the commanders of the Roman Army during the Second Punic War and the conqueror of Syracuse.

In his first consulship (222 BC) he was engaged, with Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus (uncle of Scipio Africanus) as colleague, in war against the Insubrian Gauls at the Battle of Clastidium, and won the spolia opima, the greatest of all possible honors for a Roman, for the third and last time in Roman history by slaying their chief Viridomarus in an one-on-one melee (Polybius ii. 34; Propertius v. 10, 39).

During the Punic Wars he first served against Hamilcar in Sicily. In 216, after the defeat at Cannae, he took command of the remnant of the army at Casilinum, and although he was unable to prevent Capua going over to Hannibal, he saved Nola and southern Campania.

In 214 BC, he was in Sicily as consul at the time of the revolt of Syracuse; he stormed Leontini and besieged Syracuse, but the skill of Archimedes repelled his attacks by sea. After a two years' siege he gradually forced his way into the city and took it in the face of strong Punic reinforcements. According to Plutarch, Marcellus took advantage of a poorly guarded fortification which he had seen during diplomatic negotiations, and conquered the city. Although (again, in Plutarch's mouth^[1]) he wished to spare the lives of the Syracusans, he could not prevent the sack of the city by his soldiers; the most famous victim was Archimedes. Otherwise, Marcellus is said to have spared the lives of the inhabitants, but carried off their art treasures to Rome, the first instance of a practice afterwards common.

Consul again in 210 BC, he took Salapia in Apulia, which had revolted to Hannibal, by help of the Roman party there, and put to death the Numidian garrison. Proconsul in 209 BC, he attacked Hannibal at Asculum near Venusia in the southern region Basilicata, and after a desperate and inconclusive battle he retired to that town; he was accused of bad generalship, and had to leave the army to defend himself in Rome.

In his last consulship (208 BC), he and his colleague, while reconnoitering near Venusia, were unexpectedly attacked, and Marcellus was killed. His successes have been exaggerated by Livy, but the name often given to him, the "sword of Rome" was well deserved.

Notes

^ Note that Plutarch lived in the 1st-2nd century, when respect for the Greek culture and technology was already present in the Roman culture. In Polybius, who wrote his account of Marcellus' siege in the 2nd century BC, there is no reference to his respect for Syracusan citizens or properties.

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

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Works	Parallel Lives · Moralia · Pseudo-Plutarch
Lives	Alcibiades and Coriolanus¹ · Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar · Aratus of Sicyon & Artaxerxes and Galba & Otho² · Aristides and Cato the Elder¹ · Crassus and Nicias¹ · Demetrius and Antony¹ · Demosthenes and Cicero¹ · Dion and Brutus¹ · Fabius and Pericles¹ · Lucullus and Cimon¹ · Lysander and Sulla¹ · Numa and Lycurgus¹ · Pelopidas and Marcellus¹ · Philopoemen and Flamininus¹ · Phocion and Cato the Younger · Pompey and Agesilaus¹ · Poplicola and Solon¹ · Pyrrhus and Gaius Marius · Romulus and Theseus¹ · Sertorius and Eumenes¹ · Tiberius Gracchus & Gaius Gracchus and Agis & Cleomenes¹ · Timoleon and Aemilius Paulus¹ · Themistocles and Camillus
Translators	John Dryden · Thomas North · Jacques Amyot · Philemon Holland · Arthur Hugh Clough
¹ Comparison extant · ² Four unpaired Lives

Preceded by Gaius Flaminius and Publius Furius Philus	Consul of the Roman Republic with Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus 222 BC	Succeeded by Publius Cornelius Scipio Asina and Marcus Minucius Rufus and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (Suffect)
Preceded by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Lucius Postumius Albinus	Consul (Suffect) of the Roman Republic with Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, abdicated 215 BC	Succeeded by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Marcus Minucius Rufus and Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (Suffect)
Preceded by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Marcus Minucius Rufus and Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (Suffect)	Consul of the Roman Republic with Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus 214 BC	Succeeded by Quintus Fabius Maximus and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
Preceded by Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus and Marcus Minucius Rufus and Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus Maximus	Consul of the Roman Republic with Marcus Valerius Laevinus 210 BC	Succeeded by Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus
Preceded by Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus	Consul of the Roman Republic with Titus Quinctius Crispinus 208 BC	Succeeded by Gaius Claudius Nero and Marcus Livius Salinator