Marcellus

Family: Roman · Role: general · First appears: Comparision of Pelopidas with Marcellus

Marcellus defeated a vast Gallic force with only a few horsemen and captured its king, then took Syracuse. He became the first to dare attack Hannibal, changing the aspect of the war and setting an example for others. Accounts differ over the result: Polybius says Hannibal was never defeated by Marcellus, while Livy, Caesar, Cornelius Nepos, and Juba report that Hannibal’s troops were routed in some encounters, though these defeats did little to alter the war.

Marcellus had been one of Cato the Younger’s friends from childhood, and Titus Quintius Flamininus received his first military charge under him while he was consul. He married the sister of young Caesar; the son Caesar adopted was given Julia in marriage. Antony was his rival and resisted him. Though compared with Pelopidas as valiant, diligent, daring, and high-spirited, Marcellus was distinguished by the slaughter and enslavement that followed some of his victories. Later, he fell into an unexplored ambush and was killed; after Pelopidas’s death, Pelopidas’s friends buried him, while his enemies held a funeral for Marcellus.

Relationship record

Life events

• Marcellus defeated a vast Gallic force and captured its king.(Comparision of Pelopidas with Marcellus)
  • “Marcellus's exploits against the Gauls are admirable and ample; when, accompanied by a few horse, he defeated and put to fight a vast number of horse and foot together, (an action you cannot easily in historians find to have been done by any other captain,) and took their king prisoner.”
• Marcellus captured Syracuse.(Comparision of Pelopidas with Marcellus · 📍 Syracuse)
  • “Marcellus took Syracuse;”
• Marcellus became the first to dare attack Hannibal, changing the war's course.(Comparision of Pelopidas with Marcellus)
  • With: Hannibal
  • “and, when all others declined, alone, without one companion, ventured to engage with Hannibal; and changing the aspect of the war first showed the example of daring to attack him.”
• Marcellus fell into an unexplored ambush and was killed.(Comparision of Pelopidas with Marcellus)
  • “But Marcellus, when it made little to his advantage, and when no such violent ardor as present danger naturally calls out transported him to passion, throwing himself into danger, fell into an unexplored ambush;”
• Friends buried Pelopidas, while his enemies held a funeral for Marcellus.(Comparision of Pelopidas with Marcellus)
  • With: Pelopidas
  • “After Pelopidas's death, his friends, for whom he died, made a funeral for him; the enemies, by whom he had been killed, made one for Marcellus.”