Gaius Claudius Marcellus Maior

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. [Caesar, "de Bello Gallico", [http://perseus.uchicago.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0001:book=8:chapter=50 viii.50.] ] 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. [Dio Cassius, "Roman History", [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/40*.html#66 xl.66.] ] 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. [Caesar, "de Bello Civili", [http://perseus.uchicago.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0076:book=1:chapter=4 i.5] ; Dio Cassius, "Roman History", [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/41*.html xl.1-3] ; Appian, "The Civil Wars", [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Appian/Civil_Wars/2*.html#33 ii.33.] ]

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. [Caesar, "de Bello Civili", [http://perseus.uchicago.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0076:book=1:chapter=12 i.14] ; Cicero, "Epistulae ad Atticum", [http://perseus.uchicago.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0022:text=A:book=7:letter=18 vii.18] , [http://perseus.uchicago.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0022:text=A:book=7:letter=20 20] ; Appian, "The Civil Wars", [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Appian/Civil_Wars/2*.html#39 39.] ] He then was a commander in Pompeius's fleet. [Caesar, "de Bello Civili", [http://perseus.uchicago.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0076:book=3:chapter=3 iii.5] .]

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