Marcus Claudius Marcellus

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 4.3 §5 Marcellus the candidate

  M. Claudius Marcellus, the future consul of 51 BC, here standing for office (probably the aedileship). Cicero notes wryly that his neighbour slept soundly through the crisis.

• Ad Atticum 5.11 §2 Marcellus has acted foully in the man from Comum

  The consul M. Claudius Marcellus had a magistrate of Novum Comum flogged in 51 BC to show contempt for the Latin citizenship Caesar had granted that Transpadane colony; since a Roman citizen could not legally be scourged, the act was a deliberate insult to Caesar. Cicero adds that the victim had not even held the magistracy that would have conferred citizenship, yet was still a Transpadane.

• Ad Atticum 7.1 §5 the two earlier consulships of the Marcelli

  M. Claudius Marcellus (cos. 51) and his cousin C. Marcellus (cos. 50), hardline optimates who repeatedly pressed for an early end to Caesar's command; Cicero was abroad during their terms and so escaped voting on the question.

• Ad Atticum 8.3 §3 on the Kalends of March, blocked the consul Marcus Marcellus

  In his consulship of 51 BC M. Claudius Marcellus pressed to set a fixed end-date to Caesar's command in Gaul; Pompey's manoeuvre to keep the question off the agenda is, for Cicero, one of the "old chapters" in which Pompey shielded the man he now fights. The Kalends were the first day of the month.

• Ad Atticum 13.10 §1 you take Marcellus' death hard

  Marcus Claudius Marcellus, consul 51 BC and a leading Republican, pardoned by Caesar in 46 BC (the occasion of Cicero's Pro Marcello). He was murdered by his companion Magius near the Piraeus in May 45 BC while preparing to return to Italy.

• Ad Atticum 13.22 §2 About Marcellus

  M. Claudius Marcellus, consul 51 BC, a leading optimate pardoned by Caesar; murdered at Athens (or Piraeus) in May 45 BC on his way home. Cassius and then Servius Sulpicius sent Cicero the news, which shocked Rome.

• Ad Familiares 4.4 §3 we learned of the safety of Marcellus, your colleague

  M. Claudius Marcellus had been Servius's colleague in the consulship of 51 BC. A staunch enemy of Caesar, he had gone into voluntary exile at Mytilene after the war; in September 46 the Senate begged Caesar to pardon him, the occasion of Cicero's surviving speech Pro Marcello.

• Ad Familiares 4.7 §1 the course you have followed thus far

  M. Claudius Marcellus (cos. 51), Cicero's augural colleague and a leading optimate, had withdrawn into voluntary exile at Mytilene after the Pompeian collapse rather than seek Caesar's pardon. This is the first of four letters (Fam. 4.7-4.10) in which Cicero urges him to accept reconciliation and return to Rome.

• Ad Familiares 4.8 §1 nor, in any way, to console you

  A second letter to the exiled M. Marcellus (cos. 51), in the same campaign of persuasion as Fam. 4.7. Cicero strikes the consolatory pose only to disclaim it: Marcellus's Stoic fortitude needs no comfort, and Cicero confesses he cannot even console himself amid the ruin of the Republic.

• Ad Familiares 4.9 §3 by an honourable retirement you have preserved both the state and the reputation of your own standing

  Cicero praises Marcellus's honestum otium — his dignified withdrawal from the war — as having safeguarded both his political standing and his good name, but argues that continued absence now risks turning a noble choice into mere obstinacy.

• Ad Familiares 4.10 §1 see to it that you come as soon as may be

  The briefest and most urgent of the four appeals to the exiled Marcellus (cos. 51): Caesar's pardon has been granted, and Cicero presses him to make use of it without further delay, fearing that his "slow departure" from Mytilene is hardening into permanent reluctance.

• Ad Familiares 4.11 §1 how great a weight your authority has always carried with me

  Marcellus's own reply, written from Mytilene in October 46 BC, answering Cicero's run of letters (Fam. 4.7-4.10). He concedes that Cicero's auctoritas finally overcame his reluctance to accept Caesar's pardon and return from exile.

• Ad Familiares 4.11 §1 out of the very small number of friends, kinsmen, and connections who truly favoured my restoration

  Marcellus's pointed remark on the smallness of his loyal circle reflects the bitterness of exile: he singles out Cicero as the most eager and warm-hearted of the few who genuinely worked for his return (salus, here "restoration").

• Ad Familiares 4.12 §1 I met there our colleague M. Marcellus

  M. Claudius Marcellus, consul of 51 BC, was a leading optimate who went into exile at Mytilene after Pharsalus. In 46 BC Caesar pardoned him at the Senate's plea, the occasion of Cicero's speech Pro Marcello; Marcellus was murdered while making his way home from exile. Servius calls him 'colleague' because both had been augurs and held the consulship.

• Ad Familiares 15.9 §1 posted by you yourself to the ends of the earth

  M. Marcellus, as consul of 51 BC, presided over the senatorial allocation of provinces under the lex Pompeia of 52, by which a five-year gap was required between magistracy and provincial command. Cicero, having declined the provinces in 63 and 62, was sent out under this rule.

• For Quintus Ligarius §37 lately in the Senate-house

  A reference to the pardon of M. Claudius Marcellus, secured days earlier (the occasion of Pro Marcello); Cicero asks Caesar to repeat in the Forum what he did in the Senate.

• For Marcus Marcellus §2 M. Marcellus

  Marcus Claudius Marcellus, consul of 51 BC and a leading optimate opponent of Caesar; after Pharsalus he withdrew to Mytilene in self-imposed exile. The speech celebrates Caesar's decision in the Senate to pardon him and allow his return.