2. M. CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS, an inveterate opponent of Julius Caesar. During his consulship (51 B.C.) he proposed to remove Caesar from his army in March 49, but this decision was delayed by Pompey's irresolution and the skilful opposition of the tribune C. Curio (see CAESAR, JULIUS). In January 49 he tried to put off declaring war against Caesar till an army could be got ready, but his advice was not taken. When Pompey left Italy, Marcus and his brother Gaius followed, while his cousin withdrew to Liternum. After Pharsalus M. Marcellus retired to Mytilene, where he practised rhetoric and studied philosophy. In 46 his cousin and the senate successfully appealed to Caesar to pardon him, and Marcellus reluctantly consented to return. On this occasion Cicero's[1] speech _Pro Marcello_ was delivered. Marcellus left for Italy, but was murdered in May by one of his own attendants, P. Magius Chilo, in the Peiraeus. Marcellus was a thorough aristocrat. He was an eloquent speaker (Cicero, _Brutus_, 71), and a man of firm character, although not free from avarice. See Cicero, _Ad fam._ iv. 4, 7, 10, and _Ad Att._ v. 11 (ed. Tyrrell and Purser); Caesar, _B. C._ i. 2; Suetonius, _Caesar_, 29; G. Boissier, _Cicero and his Friends_ (Eng. trans., 1897). 3. M. CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS (c. 43-23 B.C.), son of C. Marcellus and Octavia, sister of Augustus. In 25 he was adopted by the emperor and married to his daughter Julia. This seemed to mark him out as the heir to the throne, but Augustus, when attacked by a serious illness, gave his signet to M. Vipsanius Agrippa. In 23 Marcellus, then curule aedile, died at Baiae. Livia was suspected of having poisoned him to get the empire for her son Tiberius. Great hopes had been built on the youth, and he was celebrated by many writers, especially by Virgil in a famous passage (_Aeneid_, vi. 860). He was buried in the Campus Martius, and Augustus himself pronounced the funeral oration. The Theatrum Marcelli (remains of which can still be seen) was afterwards dedicated in his honour. Horace, _Odes_, i. 12; Propertius iii. 18; Dio Cassius liii. 28, 30; Tacitus, _Annals_, ii. 41; Suetonius, _Augustus_, 63; Vell. Pat. ii. 93. FOOTNOTE: [1] The authorship of this speech has been disputed. MARCESCENT (Lat. _marcescens_, withering), a botanical term for withering without falling off.