|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Marcus Claudius Marcellus |
 |
|
 |
This
was, O stranger, once Rome's star divine, Claudius Marcellus of an
ancient line; To fight her wars seven times her consul made, Low in the
dust her enemies he laid. (Plutarch, Life of Marcellus)
Roman
general who captured Syracuse during the Second Punic War (218-201) -
"the sword of Rome". He was consul five times (222, 215, 214, 210, 208).
His
first appointment as consul was marked by successes against the
Cisalpine Gauls (222). Marcellus fought the Insubres and won the spolia
opima ("spoils of honour"; the arms taken by a general who killed an
enemy chief in single combat) for the third and last time in Roman
history. ("The first was Romulus, after having slain Acron, king of the
Caeninenses: the second, Cornelius Cossus, who slew Tolumnius the
Etruscan: after them Marcellus, having killed Britomartus king of the
Gauls; after Marcellus, no man" (Plutarch, Life of Marcellus)
As Praetor, he was sent to Sicily.
After
the disaster at Cannae (216) he is called to command the remainder of
the legions at Canusium and saved Nola and southern Campania from
Hannibal.
{short
description of image}From 214, when he was consul for the third time,
to 211 he served in Sicily where he stormed Leontini and, after a
two-year siege, took Syracuse. His troops sacked the city and carried
its art treasures to Rome. Archimedes perishes during the taking of the
city and Marcellus gives him a splendid funeral (212). Marcellus was
consul again in 210, and took Salapia in Apulia, which had revolted and
joined forces with Hannibal. In 209 he fought Hannibal inconclusively
near Venusia.
In
his fifth consulship (208) he was killed while reconnoitering enemy
positions naer Venusia, Apulia. Hannibal gives him the last honours.
"Hannibal,
little valuing the other events, so soon as he was told of Marcellus's
death, immediately hasted to the hilt. Viewing the body, and continuing
for some time to observe its strength and shape, he allowed not a word
to fall from him expressive of the least pride or arrogancy, nor did he
show in his countenance any sign of gladness, as another perhaps would
have done, when his fierce and troublesome enemy had been taken away;
but amazed by so sudden and unexpected an end, taking off nothing but
his ring, gave order to have the body properly clad and adorned, and
honorably burned. The relics, put into a silver urn, with a crown of
gold to cover it, he sent back to his son." (Plutarch, Life of
Marcellus) |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
