M. Claudius, the conqueror of Syracuse, was probably born at some period before 268 B.C. He is said by Plutarch to have early shown a valorous spirit and a fondness for single combat. The first public office he is recorded to have filled was that of curule aedile. In 222 B.C. he became consul for the first time. The war with the Cisalpine Gauls was then drawing to a close, and the Insubres had sued ineffectually for peace. Marcellus joined the army without delay, and laid siege to Acceria (Gerchia), on the banks of the Po. When the Gauls attempted to make a diversion by attacking Clastidium, he left his colleague before Acceria, and having reached them by forced marches, defeated them, and slew their general, or king, Viridomarus, with his own hand. This was the third time that a Roman general had presented the spolia opima to Jupiter Feretrius. Marcellus obtained the honours of a triumph, which is said to have been one of the most magnificent ever witnessed in Rome. At the commencement of the second Punic war (B.C. 218), Marcellus was appointed as prætor to the command of the troops in Sicily; but he was recalled after the defeat at Cannae (2nd August B.C. 216), and sent to Apulia to collect the remains of the shattered Roman army. This he effected with much prudence; and the severe check which Hannibal received from him before Nola, tended greatly to reanimate the drooping spirits of his countrymen. Hannibal used to say, that he feared Fabius as his schoolmaster, and Marcellus as his enemy. Marcellus was again named consul, B.C. 215; but owing to the unfavourable prognostications of the augurs he immediately abdicated, and proceeded to Nola as proconsul. In the following year he was raised a third time to the consulship, and proceeded to the command of the war in Sicily. There he began to storm Syracuse by sea and land; but his powerful engines were baffled at every point by the more powerful contrivances of Archimedes; and not till after a blockade, of three years was the city taken. In the lawless pillaging that ensued, Marcellus attempted in vain to save the life of Archimedes. That philosopher was slain when absorbed in his mathematical studies. During the blockade, Marcellus, at the head of part of his army, had been waging a desultory warfare with the Carthaginians in Sicily; yet, with the exception of a few towns, that island remained unsubdued. Accordingly, on his return to Rome, Marcellus was only honoured with an ovation or lesser triumph. He brought from Syracuse many beautiful statues and paintings, and was the first who taught the Romans to appreciate the exquisite works of Greece, hitherto unknown to them. He was named for the fourth time consul, B.C. 210, and the command of the war in Sicily fell to him by lot; but he exchanged it for Italy with his colleague Lævinus. Marcellus recovered several cities of the Samnites from Hannibal, who carefully shunned any regular battle with his opponent. In the following year he retained the command of his army as proconsul. He was appointed consul the fifth time, B.C. 208, when he fell into an ambush which had been laid for him by Hannibal, and was killed. Thus fell Marcellus, who was called the sword of Rome, in contrast with Fabius, who was entitled its buckler. Plutarch and Livy, the chief authorities for the life of Marcellus, represent him as having gained many victories over Hannibal. Yet Polybius (xv. 2) denies that he ever defeated the great Carthaginian at all, a testimony that certainly countenances the opinion that Marcellus is generally overrated. In fact, he seems to have been brave, daring, and hot-headed; with much of the obstinate harshness of an illiterate soldier, and with little of the far-seeing prudence of a great general.