MARCELLUS, cm I s t't.At•fitus. (1) A fhnoHs Roman general. Ile belonged to a distin guished plels•ion family. He was consul for the first time in !tr. 222. and obtained tt decisive vie. tory over the Insultrians in Cisalpine Clan]. slay ing with his own hand their ling. Itritomarins or Viridonotrus. whose stmils lie dedicated to 31114 tor. and was honored with a llioopFt. was the third and last occasion in Remain history on which opimo were otrer,.(1 to Jnititer l'cretgius. Li the Second ‘Var fought as prdor. in n.e. 210 ngainst Hannibal nt Nola. in Campania and the victory while), he gained was the more important. as it showed that Hannibal was not invincible. and that the Romans had not been irreparably overthrown at faunae. In the course of two years he thrice repulsed the Carthaginian general at this place. Being consul again in B.C. 214, lie was intrusted with the command of the war in Sicily. Ile took Leontini. massacring in cold blood 2000 Roman deserters Whom he found there, and then ad vanced against Syracuse, which he tried to storm. All his efforts were rendered unavailing by the skill of Archimedes, and he was compelled to blockade the city. Famine, pestilence, and ul
timately treachery on the part of the Spanish auxiliaries of the Syraeusans enabled .11arcellus to make himself master of the place (1.0. 212), after which the remainder of Sicily was soon brought under the dominion of the Romans. In me. 210 he was again consul, and was again op posed to Hannibal, with whom he fought an in decisive battle at Nomistro, in Lucania, and by whom he was defeated at Canusintn, in Apulia, in Mc. 209, but on the day following retrieved the defeat. In n.c. 20S Ile was for the fifth time elected to the vonsulate, and assumed once more the command of the Roman army against Banuibal. When out reconnoitring one day he fell into an ambuscade :mil was slain. (2) A de scendant of the above, the son of Augustus's sister Detavia, born me. .13. In if.e. 23 the Emperor adopted him as his son and successor, and mar ried his daughter Julia to him, but two years later the young inan (lied. The famous lines of Vergil . En. 860-8S6) refer to Fris death. Augustus named a theatre in Rome in his honor.