MARCELLUS, M. CLAUDIUS, of the same family as the conqueror of Syracuse, first appears in history as curule ædile, along with P. Clodius, in 56 B.C. He was named consul (B.C. 51), along with Sulpicius Rufus; and he proposed that Cæsar should be deprived of the command of the armies of Gaul; but this advice was not followed. (Cic. Att. vii. 1.) The civil war broke out (B.C. 49), and Marcellus joined the party of Pompey; but on the death of the latter (B.C. 48), he ceased to take part in the political affairs of his country, and retired to Mitylene, that he might not witness the overthrow of the republic. Here he was found by Brutus as he was returning from Asia. (Senec. ad Helv. c. 9.) His friends at Rome, however, were anxious that he should return, and they did not find it difficult to prevail on Cæsar to forget the part he had taken against him. His pardon, indeed, was more readily granted by Cæsar than accepted by Marcellus. If we may judge from the letters addressed to him by Cicero, and now known as the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth of the fourth book of Epistolæ ad Familiares, Marcellus was unwilling to leave his retreat at Mitylene. He, however, yielded, and had reached Athens on his way homewards, when one of his companions in exile, P. Magius Chilo, actuated by private resentment, murdered him, B.C. 46. His old colleague, Sulpicius, happened to be at Athens at this time, and superintended the celebration of his funeral rites. (Cic. ad Div. iv. 12.) Marcellus is the subject of the eloquent speech Pro M. Marcello, often erroneously ascribed to Cicero.