Marcus Claudius Marcellus was a

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

(196 BC) and a censor in (189 BC) of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...

. He was the son of the famous general

Marcus Claudius Marcellus Marcus Claudius Marcellus (; 270 – 208 BC), five times elected as consul of the Roman Republic, was an important Roman military leader during the Gallic War of 225 BC and the Second Punic War. Marcellus gained the most prestigious award a Roma ...

(killed 208 BC), and possibly father of the three-time consul

Marcus Claudius Marcellus (consul 166 BC) Marcus Claudius Marcellus (died c. 148 BC) was Roman consul for the years 166 BC (together with Gaius Sulpicius Gallus), for 155 BC (with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum), and for 152 BC (with Lucius Valerius Flaccus). Family He was a ...

. Marcellus first appears in

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...

's history when his father, then

curule aedile ''Aedile'' ( ; la, aedīlis , from , "temple edifice") was an elected office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings () and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enf ...

, brought an action before the

senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

against his colleague Scantinius Capitolinus who had made improper advances to the young and beautiful boy. The younger Marcellus, despite his evident embarrassment, convinced the senate of the man's guilt and his father was recompensed with some articles of silver which he dedicated to a temple. Marcellus would have been at least seven, and probably over 13 at the time of the incident (c. 226 BC). The relation of this case to the ''

Lex Scantinia The ''Lex Scantinia'' (less often ''Scatinia'') is a poorly documented Roman law that penalized a sex crime ('' stuprum'') against a freeborn male minor ('' ingenuus'' or '' praetextatus''). The law may also have been used to prosecute adult male c ...

'' is vexed, since a

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...

was named after its proposer, and never a defendant.

Elaine Fantham Elaine Fantham (née Crosthwaite, 25 May 1933 – 11 July 2016) was a British-Canadian Classics, classicist whose expertise lay particularly in Latin literature, especially comedy, epic poetry and rhetoric, and in the social history of Roman wom ...

, "''Stuprum'': Public Attitudes and Penalties for Sexual Offences in Republican Rome," in ''Roman Readings: Roman Response to Greek Literature from Plautus to Statius and Quintilian'' (Walter de Gruyter, 2011), pp. 137–138;

Eva Cantarella Eva Cantarella (born 1936 in Rome) is an Italian classicist. She is professor of Roman law and ancient Greek law at the University of Milan, and has served as Dean of the Law School at the University of Camerino. Biography Cantarella is known for ...

, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'' (Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 110–111. Like his coevals, Marcellus fought in the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

, probably accompanying his father on various military campaigns, including the famous campaign against Syracuse. He was military tribune under his father, when the two consuls were ambushed in 208 BC resulting in his father's death and the other consul's severe injury. Marcellus himself was badly wounded; his father's body was subsequently returned by

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Puni ...

to the son. In 204 BC Marcellus was a

tribune of the plebs Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( la, tribunus plebis) was the first office of the Roman Republic, Roman state that was open to the plebs, plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most importan ...

, appointed to lead a commission (also including Cato) to investigate charges made against

Scipio Africanus Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (, , ; 236/235–183 BC) was a Roman general and statesman, most notable as one of the main architects of Rome's victory against Carthage in the Second Punic War. Often regarded as one of the best military com ...

. The charges were dismissed, and it is unclear what relationship, if any, existed between the two men. (Marcellus's father and Scipio's uncle had been co-consuls in 222 BC).

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Further reading