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) 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.

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