Marcellus
Marcellus names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Marcellus A Roman who distinguished himself in the civil wars
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A Roman who distinguished himself in the civil wars of Caesar and Pompey by his firm attachment to the latter. He was banished by Caesar, but was afterwards recalled at the request of the Senate. Pope, in his Essay on Man, epistle iv., has a couplet referring to him : "And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels, Than Caesar with a senate at his heels." There were some other Romans of the same name, of minor repute. Marius, C. A celebrated Roman who signalized himself under Scipio at the siege of Numantia. He was appointed to finish the war against Jugurtha , who was defeated and betrayed into the hands of the Romans. After this, new honors awaited Marius. He was elected consul, and was sent against the Teutones. The war was prolonged, and Marius was a third and fourth time invested with the consulship. At length two engagements were fought, and the Teutones were defeated, a vast number of them being left dead on the battlefields. After many vicissitudes Marius died, B. c. 86, directly after he had been honored with the consulship for the seventh time. There were a number of others of the same name, but of minor note.
Marcellus M. CLAUDIUS, a Roman general and member of one
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
M. CLAUDIUS, a Roman general and member of one of the most eminent plebeian families. In his first consulship (222 B. C.) he defeated the Insubrian Gauls and slew with his own hand their king, Britomartus or Viridomarus. In the second Punic war Marcellus took command after the disaster of Cannæ, and checked Hannibal at Nola, in Campania (216 B. c.) Again consul in 214 B. C., he gave a fresh impulse to the war in Sicily. The skill of Archimedes compelled him to regularly blockade the city of Syracuse. Famine, pestilence, and ultimately treachery on the part of the Spanish auxiliaries of the Syracusans, opened its gates (212 b. c.), after which the remainder of Sicily was soon brought under the dominion of the Romans. In his fifth consulship, 208 B. c., he fell in a skirmish against Hannibal.
Marcellus I., Pope, succeeded Marcellinus in 308
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
I., Pope, succeeded Marcellinus in 308. The Emperor Maxentius banished him from Rome for excommunicating an apostate. He died in 310. MARCELLUS II., succeeded Julius III. in 1555, but died a few weeks after his election.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
These are ancient and early-modern lives, and the accounts of them still stand. Collier's 1921 sketch of M. Claudius Marcellus "the sword of Rome" remains the standard story, though modern historians stress that his single combat with the Gallic king in 222 BC won him the spolia opima, the last Roman ever recorded to claim that honour; his death in 208 BC is usually placed in an ambush near Venusia. On Pope Marcellus I, modern papal lists give slightly different and admittedly uncertain dates, generally 308-309 rather than 308-310. Collier's is right that Marcellus II died within weeks of his election in 1555 - after about three weeks - and his short reign is now remembered chiefly through Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli, written in his memory.
Written for this edition, 2026.