Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor

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See Gaius Claudius Marcellus for other men of this name, or Gaius Claudius Marcellus Maior for his cousin, consul of 49 BC.
Roman Republic in 50 BC

Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor (88 BC–May 40 BC) was a Roman Senator and Consul. He was a member of the distinguished Claudius family. He was a friend to Roman Senator Cicero and an early opponent of Julius Caesar.

Descent & Family[edit]

He was a direct descendant of consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus. His father was also named Marcus and his mother was named Junia.

From his first unnamed wife, Marcellus had a daughter who married the Roman Senator, Sextus Quinctilius Varus who served as a Quaestor in 49 BC.[1] He was a grandfather to the Roman General Publius Quinctilius Varus and his three sisters.

He married in an arranged ceremony Octavia the Younger, a great-niece of Julius Caesar and sister of Octavian. Octavia bore Marcellus three children a son, Marcus and two daughters, both named Claudia Marcella born in Rome.

Opposition to Julius Caesar[edit]

In 54 BC the great-uncle of Octavia, Julius Caesar was said to be anxious for Octavia to divorce Marcellus so that she could marry Pompey, his rival and son-in-law who had just lost his wife Julia (daughter of Caesar and thus Octavia's cousin once removed). However, Pompey apparently declined the proposal and Octavia's husband continued to oppose Julius Caesar, culminating in the crucial year of his consulship in 50 BC when he tried to recall Julius Caesar from his ten-year governorship in Gaul two years early, without his army, in an attempt to save the Roman Republic. Failing this, he called unsuccessfully upon Caesar to resign.

He also obstructed Caesar from standing for a second consulship in absentia, insisting that he should return to Rome to stand, thereby forgoing the protection of his armies in Gaul. When Caesar finally invaded Italy in 49 BC, Marcellus, unlike his brother and nephew, did not take up arms against him. Caesar subsequently pardoned him.

Later Years[edit]

In 47 BC, he was able to intercede with Caesar for his cousin and namesake Gaius Claudius Marcellus Maior, a former consul of 49 BC, then living in exile. He died in May 40 BC, five months later his wife Octavia, married the Roman Triumvir Mark Antony.


External links[edit]

Political offices
Preceded by
Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Servius Sulpicius Rufus
Consul of the Roman Republic
with Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus
50 BC
Succeeded by
Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus and Gaius Claudius Marcellus Maior