Marcellus (nephew of Augustus)

Marcellus was born into the Claudii Marcelli, a plebeian branch of the gens Claudia in 42 BC, the son of Gaius Claudius Marcellus and Octavia Minor.[2] He had two full sisters named Claudia Marcella Major and Claudia Marcella Minor[3] as well as two younger maternal half-sisters named Antonia Major and Antonia Minor.

His mother was the great-niece of Julius Caesar and the sister of Octavian. Octavian would later become the first emperor of Rome and assume the name "Augustus". His father was consul in 50 BC and, despite his initial loyalty to Pompey, sided with Caesar during Caesar's Civil War in 49 BC. After his father's death in 40 BC his mother was married to Marc Antony when Antony and her brother were the most powerful men in the Roman world.[2]

Sextus Propertius and Virgil connect Marcellus to his famous ancestor Marcus Claudius Marcellus, a famous general who fought in the Second Punic War.[4]

He was betrothed to Pompeia, the daughter of Sextus Pompey, in 39 BC at the peace of Misenum where Octavian and Sextus Pompey agreed to a truce. Marcellus never married Pompeia and she fled with her mother and father to Anatolia in 36 BC.[5][6][7]

Not much is known about his education except that he was taught philosophy by Nestor the Stoic alongside his cousin Tiberius who had moved into Octavia's house following the death of his father Tiberius Claudius Nero in 33 BC. He may also have received some education by Athenaeus Mechanicus, who was a Peripatetic philosopher.[8]

At the conclusion of the Final War of the Roman Republic, Antony was defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in September 31 BC, for which Octavian was awarded a triple triumph. The triumph was held in Rome during which his chariot was preceded by Tiberius and Marcellus. Tiberius rode on the trace-horse to the left while Marcellus rode on the more honorable trace-horse to the right, though Tiberius led the older boys in the Lusus Troiae ("Trojan games") as part of the performances held at the Circus Maximus. Octavian also had money distributed to the children of Rome in Marcellus' name.[9][10][11][12]

Marcellus and Tiberius either accompanied or followed Augustus to Hispania during his campaigns against the Cantabri and Astures in the Cantabrian Wars. During the second campaign in 25 BC, Marcellus and Tiberius were military tribunes with special aedile powers. After the second campaign, Augustus discharged some of his soldiers and allowed them to found the city of Emerita Augusta in Lusitania (now Mérida, Spain). For the soldiers still of military age, he held games under the direction of Marcellus and Tiberius. The campaigns were a way of introducing Marcellus and Tiberius to military life and, more importantly, to the soldiery.[12][13]

He and Tiberius then returned to Rome, probably in the spring of 25 BC. His political career saw acceleration by Augustus, and he was thought to be Augustus' preferred successor by many contemporaries.[14] He was married to his cousin Julia the Elder, who was Augustus' only daughter. The following year (24 BC) he was awarded extraordinary privileges by the Senate:[15][16]

• He was made equal in rank to ex-praetors
• He was given the right to stand for the aedileship in 23 BC[note 1]
• He was given the right to become consul ten years before the legal age

Tacitus writes that Marcellus was a member of the college of pontiffs and a curule aedile.[17]

He was cremated and his ashes were the first to be interred in the Mausoleum of Augustus on the Campus Martius beside the river Tiber. The Mausoleum became the family tomb for Rome's first monarchic family in five centuries.[23] Livia was suspected of having a hand in his death, despite the fact that there was a plague in Rome that claimed many lives. Dio reports that his contemporaries blamed her because Marcellus was favored above her son Tiberius.[24][25][26]

The new theater that was under construction at the foot of the Capitoline Hill was named the Theater of Marcellus by Augustus in his honor. The Theater is an impressive structure even today after centuries of reuse.[23]

His mother Octavia had a library dedicated to him in the Porticus Octaviae, which would later be organized by Gaius Maecenas Melissus, former slave of the famous Maecenas.[27][28]

Sextus Propertius wrote an epikedion for Marcellus (3.18) in which he criticizes Baiae, the place of his death, and elevates Marcellus to the level of Julius Caesar and his famous (alleged) ancestor Marcus Claudius Marcellus who fought in the Second Punic War.[4]

Virgil published Aeneid, his great epic of the foundation of Rome, four or five years after the death of Marcellus. In book six, the protagonist Aeneas is taken to the Underworld in one of the prophecy scenes where he encounters the spirit of Marcellus. It includes a narrative of the funeral of Marcellus on the Campus Martius. Virgil writes he was to have been the greatest of Romans, but even the gods were jealous and took Marcellus from the Roman people.[29]

Due to his close relation to the leading member of Roman politics, he is depicted in many works of art. The most notable of which include:

• Virgil reading the Aeneid to Augustus and Octavia (1787), a painting by Jean-Joseph Taillasson.[note 3][30]
• Virgil reading The Aeneid before Augustus, Livia and Octavia (1812), a painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
• I, Claudius (1934), a historical novel by classicist Robert Graves.[25]
• I, Claudius (1976), a television series by Jack Pulman. He is played by Christopher Guard.[31]
• Domina (2021), created and written by Simon Burke for Sky Atlantic. He is played by Finn Bennett.