Gaius Claudius Marcellus Maior

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Gaius Claudius Marcellus Maior was a Roman consul in 49 BC.

He is frequently confused with his cousin of the same name, Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor, a consul a year before in 50 BC. Gaius was also the brother of the Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the consul of 51 BC.

Little is known of him before his consulship in 49 with Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus. He was elected mainly because he opposed Gaius Julius Caesar.^[1] He and his colleague supported the decision of one of the previous consuls, Claudius Marcellus, in giving command of the army to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus without sanction from the senate.^[2] During their consulship, they brought up the question of what to do about Caesar. But Marcellus does not seem to have instigated the violence that caused the Marcus Antonius and several others to flee the senate to Caesar near Ravena. While that might be the case, he did not try to stop any of the violence either.^[3]

When civil war broke out, he did accompany his colleague to Capua and then to Dyrrhachium. While in Capua, he gathered the gladiators there and freed them, but when criticised by friends, he dispersed them through the surrounding countryside.^[4] He then was a commander in Pompeius's fleet.^[5]

[edit] References

1. ^ Caesar, de Bello Gallico, viii.50.
2. ^ Dio Cassius, Roman History, xl.66.
3. ^ Caesar, de Bello Civili, i.5; Dio Cassius, Roman History,xl.1-3; Appian, The Civil Wars, ii.33.
4. ^ Caesar, de Bello Civili, i.14; Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, vii.18, 20; Appian, The Civil Wars, 39.
5. ^ Caesar, de Bello Civili, iii.5.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).

Preceded by Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor

Consul of the Roman Republic with Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus 49 BC

Succeeded by Gaius Julius Caesar and Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus