Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/946

Rh 932 MARCELLUS. 8. M. Claudius M. f. M. n. Marcellus, son of No. 5, conspicuous for his three consulships. He succeeded his father as pontifex in B. c. 177, though he had not then held any of the higher offices of the state. (Liv. xli. 13) In 169 he was appointed praetor, and Spain assigned him for his province. (Id. xliii. 11, 15.) Three years later he obtained his first consulship, B.C. 166, which was marked by a victory over the Alpine tribes of the Gauls, for which he was honoured with a triumph. (Liv. xlv. 44, Epit. xlvi. ; Fast. Capit.) His second consulship, in B.C. 155, was, in like manner, distinguished by a triumph over the Ligurians (Fast. Capit.) ; but we know nothing farther of his exploits on either of these occasions. In B. c. 1 52 he was a third time raised to the con- sulship, together with L. Valerius Flaccus, and ap- pointed to conduct the war in Spain. Here he obtained some successes over the Celtiberians ; and having added to the impression thus produced by the clemency with which he treated the van- quished, he induced all the tribes at that time in arms to give hostages, and send ambassadors to Rome to sue for peace ; but his conduct was attfi- buted to indolence or timidity : the senate refused to ratify the proposed terms, and appointed L. LucuUus, one of the new consuls, to succeed Mar- cellus, and continue the war. Meanwhile, Mar- cellus, after an expedition against the Lusitanians, in which he had reduced the strong town of Ner- gobriga, had returned to winter at Corduba; but on learning the resolution of the senate, he sud- denly broke up his winter-quarters, and marched into the country of the Celtiberians ; whereupon all those tribes who had been previously in arms hastened to submit at discretion ; a result previously concerted, as it was suspected, with the consul himself, who admitted them to favourable terms, while he had the satisfaction of handing over the province to his successor in a state of perfect tran- quillity. (Appian, Hisp. 48 — 50 ; Polyb. xxxv. 2, 3 ; Liv. Epit. xlviii. ; Eutrop. iv. 9.) The ad- ministration of Marcellus in Spain was farther dis- tinguished by the foundation of the important colony of Corduba. (Strab. iii. p. 141.) In 148 he was sent ambassador to Masinissa, king of Nu- midia, but was shipwrecked on the voyage, and perished. (Liv. Ejnt. L. ; Cic. in Pison. 19, de Divin. ii. 5.) It is recorded of this Marcellus that he commemorated, by an inscription in the temple of Honour and Virtue, consecrated by his father, the circumstance that his grandfather, his father, and himself, had enjoyed between them no less than nine consulships, an instance xmparalleled in the history of Rome. ( Ascon. ad Cic. Pison. p. 12, ed. Orell.) 9. M. Claudius Marcellus, son of the pre- ceding, and father of the following, as well as of No. 12. He is not mentioned by any ancient author, but is supplied as a necessary link of the pedigree. (See Drumann, Gesch. Roms, vol. ii. p. 393, and below. No. 12.) 10. M. Claudius Marcellus, curule aedile in B. c. 91. (Cic. de Or. i. 13.) He is supposed by Drumann to be the father of the following, and brother of No. 1 2. 11. M.Claudius, M. f. M. n. Marcellus (probably a son of the preceding), the friend of Cicero, and subject of tlie oration Pro M. Marcello, ascribed, though erroneously, to the great orator. He is first mentioned as curule aedile with P. MARCELLUS. Clodius in n. c. 56. (Cic. ad AU. iv. 3.) In February of that year he defended Milo, at Cicero's request, against the charge of violence brought against him by Clodius. (Cic. ad Q. Fr. ii. 3.) In 54 he was one of the six advocates who de- fended the cause of M. Scaurus (Ascon. ad Scaur. p. 20, ed. Orell.) ; and after the death of Clodius (b. c. 52), took a prominent part in the defence of Milo. (Id. ad Milan, pp. 35, 40, 41.) In the same year he was elected consul, together with Ser. Sulpicius Rufus, for the ensuing year. For this distinction he was probably indebted to the support and favour of Pompey ; and during the period of his magistracy (b.c. 51) he showed himself a zealous partisan of the latter, and sought to secure his favour by urging the senate to extreme mea- sures against Caesar. Among other modes in which he displayed his zeal, was the very indis- creet one of causing a citizen of Comum to be scourged, in order to show his contempt for the privileges lately bestowed by Caesar upon that colony. (Cic. ad Alt. v. 1 1 ; Appian, B. C. ii. 26 ; Suet. Caes. 28.) But his vehemence gradually abated, as he found himself opposed by his colleague Sulpicius and several of the tribunes, while Pompey himself lent him no active support, and even dis- tinctly refused to second him in his proposition for the immediate abrogation of Caesar's authority. But the election of the new consuls terminated favourably to the party of Pompey ; and at length, on the 30th of September, Marcellus procured a resolution of the senate, that the whole subject should be brought under discussion on the 1st of March in the following year. After this no further steps were taken before the expiration of his office. (Suet. Caes. 28, 29; Dion Cass. xl. 58, h^ -, Ap- pian, B. C. ii. 26 ; Caes. B. G. viii. 53 ; Cic. ad AU. viii. 3 ; Caelius, ad Fam. viii. 1, 8, 10, 13.) But all the party zeal and animosity of Marcellus did not blind him to the obvious imprudence of forcing on a war for which they were unprepared ; and hence, as it became evident that an open rup- ture was inevitable, he endeavoured to moderate the vehemence of his own party. Thus, in B. c. 50, we find him urging the senate to interpose their authority with the tribunes to induce them to withdraw their opposition (Cic. arf Fam. viii. 13) ; and at the beginning of the year 49 he in vain suggested the necessity of making levies of troops, before any open steps were taken against Caesar. (Caes. B. C. i. 2.) His advice was overruled, and he was among the first to fly from Rome and Italy. But though he joined Pompey and his partisans in. Epeirus, it is clear that he did not engage with any heartiness in the cause of which, according to Cicero, he foresaw the failure from the beginning: and after the battle of Pharsalia he abandoned all thoughts of prolonging the contest, and withdrew to Mytilene, where he gave himself up to the pur- suits of rhetoric and philosophy. Here Caesar was content to leave him unmolested in a kind of honourable exile ; and Marcellus himself was un- willing to sue to the conqueror for forgiveness, though Cicero wrote to him repeatedly from Rome, urging him in the strongest manner to do so, and j assuring him of the clemency of Caesar. But j though Marcellus himself would take no steps to | procure his recall, his friends at Rome were not j backward in their exertions for that purpose ; and I at length, in a full assembly of the senate, C. Mar- ' cellus, the cousin of the exile, threw himself at